A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-Century Art Forms. by Linda Hutcheon

Hutcheon, L. A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-Century Art Forms. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 2000.

http://books.google.com/booksid=S9OU9TBnOgwC&printsec=frontcover&cd=1&source=gbs_ViewAPI#

http://individual.utoronto.ca/lindahutcheon/

Linda Hutcheon, a professor of English and Comparative Lit Studies at Toronto University, is a specialist in critical theory and postmodernist culture. In her book, A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-Century Art Forms, she covers all the means of creating parody in the varying modern forms of expression from visual art to theater to film. She asserts that parody as among the most important expressive forms of “modern self-reflexivity, one that marks the intersection of invention and critique and offers an important mode of coming to terms with the texts and discourses of the past.” Like Margaret Rose, Hutcheon explores the means and methods of creating parody, in a modern to postmodern setting, all the while contrasting it from its cousins: pastiche, burlesque, travesty, and satire, etc. Not only does she break down and explore the finite definition of what a parody is and isn’t, she also examines its uses in terms of its ability to provide natural reflectiveness to generate commentary. She also goes about the process of encoding and decoding the rhetorical approaches to the many types of parody, in order that audiences may identify the meaning.

Hutcheon’s exploration of parody accomplishes much what Rose’s text does, except her text provides a more modern, critical-theoretical viewpoint. The chapters regarding paradox, encoding and decoding will bring additional linguistic support to the observation of the means by which The Onion brings its humor about. Where her text focuses mainly on literary forms instead of digital forms, there may be some need for drawing distinctions; but this will be an effective contrasting tool for establishing the effectiveness of translating parodic and ironic messages across differing media.
parody
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