Pastiche in history: From casserole to art

January 4, 2024 4:35 AM

"The word ‘pastiche’ originates from the Italian term pasticcio, which comes from the vulgar Latin pasticium for being composed of pasta, meaning dough, pastry cake, or paste. Accordingly, pasticium and pasticcio describe dishes made from a mixture of ingredients, such as savory pies, casseroles, or baked pasta with meat. But, unfortunately, this blog post is not about pasta." [CW: Pastiche in EU copyright law] Many works have been the subject of pastiche, with pasticheurs contributing to the worlds of characters like Sherlock Holmes and Cthulhu. Note that pastiche is not (usually) parody, though it's often considered in the context of postmodernity [SLPDF]. Pastiche may, of course, be consumed along with pastitsio.
posted by cupcakeninja (6 comments total)

And purchased at the local patiss -- that is, pasticherie.
posted by humbug at 4:50 AM on January 4 [2 favorites]

And consumed with a nice pastis

More seriously: the more I read about art, plagiarism, digital manipulation and copyright law, the more I think about A Frolic of His Own, which is in itself a pastiche of sorts, and wonderfully pertinent. (See also: Books of The Times; Plagiarism as the Metaphor for a Litigious Era [ungated])
posted by chavenet at 5:21 AM on January 4 [1 favorite]

Also, C. E. Gadda’s object-lesson pasticciaccio.
posted by progosk at 6:42 AM on January 4

Some smart people have described "AI" as "Kings of Pastiche". I find that a really useful way to think of them, especially with respect to originality and copyright issues.
posted by Popular Ethics at 10:25 AM on January 4 [1 favorite]

I love teaching pastiche but I had no idea it was grammatically related to pastitsio which is my favorite childhood meal.
posted by Tesseractive at 1:46 PM on January 4 [1 favorite]

Pastiche: fanfic, except upscale.
posted by egypturnash at 4:01 PM on January 4