OUGD501 Study Task 2 | Parody and Pastiche

Write a definition of parody/pastiche based on these two documents using at least one quote from each author.

Parody and pastiche are similar in the fact they both mean that somebody is using another's work for some sort of use in their own; it is how they are used that separates the two.

Parody is more negative than pastiche as it often has 'ulterior motives', such as to mock or discredit. Although parody may not always be malicious, it is not the same as using other's work to inspire your own work and style which is the case with pastiche.

OUGD501 Study Task 1 | The Death of the Author

In ‘Death of the Author’, Barthes explains ‘believing’ in the authors hinders the reader of being able to create their own views on the written text as they are constantly trying to figure out as to why the author has written it. Barthes describes this as the ‘sway of the author’.

Barthes also believes that it us bit the words and the reader that matter, not where or who they came from or what the author meant by them. This is what is meant by ‘a text’s unity lies not in its origin, but its destination’; the ‘origin’ being the author and the ‘destination’ being the reader. 

Thought the text, when referencing to an author he calls them ‘The Author’. This title, which includes capitalised letters, suggests these people are fictional or all one and the same, or should at least be perceived that way in the minds of the readers. This idea is backed up by the way Barthes says: ‘The Author, when believed in…’. This line, along with the phrase ‘Author God’ eludes to the fact that he feels people need to ‘distance’ themselves from the person who wrote the text as they are viewed as an all mighty power who’s views and ideologies are correct. 

As said earlier, he feels this needs to be done because ‘to give a text an author is to impose a limit on that text’. This ‘limit’ is created by the reader analysing the words that come from the author’s thought, rather than just analysing the text for themselves. By trying to work out what the author means, the reader then takes that meaning and attaches it to those words rather than taking in the text and creating and discovering their own meaning. This can be linked to Barthes’ idea that nothing has meaning until somebody gives it a meaning. If the reader goes into a piece of text with the mind-set that there is already a set meaning behind the words or a definitive right and wrong way to interpret them, then they’ll miss out on letting the writing really be able to relate to them.

This can be related to graphic design as the 'author' described by Barthes could be seen as the same as a designer of a piece of graphic design. In 'the design process' it is often thought that nothing is worth doing if it doesn't have a reason behind it, these are informed decisions. If a person viewing the final piece is looking at it and is focusing on figuring out each stage of the the designer's thought process, they will not fully experience the work and be able to take it it for themselves.