Information AboutParody |
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Parody exists in all art media, including Literature , Music , and Cinema . Cultural movements can also be parodied. Light, playful parodies are sometimes colloquially referred to as spoofs. The act of such a parody is often called ''lampooning''. ORIGINS In ancient Greek Literature , a ''parodia'' was a narrative poem imitating the style and prosody of Epic s "but treat {Link without Title} light, satirical or mock-heroic subjects" (Denith, 10). Indeed, the apparent Greek roots of the word are ''par-'' (which can mean ''beside'', ''counter'', or ''against'') and ''-ody'' (''song'', as in an ode). Thus, the original Greek word has been sometimes been taken to mean ''counter-song'', an imitation that is set against the original. The Oxford English Dictionary, for example, defines parody as imitation "turned as to produce a ridiculous effect" (quoted in Hutcheon, 32). Because ''par-'' also has the non-antagonistic meaning of ''beside'', "there is nothing in ''parodia'' to necessitate the inclusion of a concept of ridicule" (Hutcheon, 32). Roman writers explained parody as an imitation of one poet by another for humorous effect. In French Neoclassical Literature , parody was also a type of poem where one work imitates the style of another for humorous effect. USE IN CLASSICAL MUSIC In reference to 15th- to 18th-century Music , parody means a reworking of one kind of composition into another (e.g., a Motet into a keyboard work as Girolamo Cavazzoni , Antonio De Cabezón , and Alonso Mudarra all did to Josquin Motet s.) More commonly, a Parody Mass (''missa parodia'') used extensive quotation from other vocal works such as Motet s; Victoria , Palestrina , Lassus , and other notable composers of the 16th century used this technique, also called marichu chollu. Song parodies can be filled with mishearings known as Mondegreen s. See also the main article on Musical Parody . ENGLISH TERM The first usage of the word ''parody'' in English cited in the '' Poems, full of Parodies; that is, of Verses patch'd up from great Poets, and turn'd into another Sence Sic '' than their Author intended them." Dryden's definition is therefore a departure from previous usage (as he implies satire), and Dryden adapts what was still a foreign term (''parody'') to apply to a recent literary subgenre that had no name: the Mock-heroic . In "MacFlecknoe", Dryden created an entire poem designed to ridicule by parody. Dryden imitates Virgil's '' Aeneid '', but the poem is about Thomas Shadwell , a minor dramatist. The implicit contrast between the heroic style from Virgil and the poor quality of the hero, Shadwell, makes Shadwell seem even worse. When dressed in Aeneas's clothes, Shadwell looks all the more ridiculous. Other parodies of the Restoration and early 18th century were similar to Dryden's: they employed an imitation of something serious and revered to ridicule a low or foolish person or habit. This is generally referred to as the Mock-heroic , a genre generally credited to Samuel Butler and his poem '' Hudibras ''. When conscious, the contrast of very serious or exalted style with very frivolous or worthless subject is parody. When the combination is unconscious, it is Bathos (derived from Alexander Pope 's parody of Longinus , " Peri Bathos "). Jonathan Swift is the first English author to apply the word ''parody'' to narrative prose, and it is perhaps because of a misunderstanding of Swift's own definition of ''parody'' that the term has since come to refer to any stylistic imitation that is intended to belittle. In "The Apology for the &c.", which is one of the prefaces to his '' A Tale Of A Tub '', Swift says that a parody is the imitation of an author one wishes to expose. In essence, this makes parody very little different from mockery and burlesque, and, given Swift's attention to language, it is likely that he knew this. In fact, Swift's definition of parody might well be a parody of Dryden's presumed habit of explaining the obvious or using loan words. After Jonathan Swift, the term ''parody'' was used almost exclusively to refer to mockery, particularly in narrative. The word spoof finds its origin in a Game invented by English Comedian Arthur Roberts , which involved trickery and nonsense. MODERNIST AND POST-MODERNIST PARODY In the broader sense of Greek ''parodia'', parody can occur when whole elements of one work are lifted out of their context and reused, not necessarily to be ridiculed. Hutcheon argues that this sense of parody has again become prevalent in the Twentieth Century , as artists have sought to connect with the past while registering differences brought by Modernity . Major modernist examples of this recontextualizing parody include James Joyce 's '' Ulysses '', which incorporates elements of Homer 's Odyssey in a Twentieth-Century Irish context, and T. S. Eliot 's '' The Waste Land '', which incorporates and recontextualizes elements of a vast range of prior texts. In the fiction, and a quotidian setting combine for a humor that is not directed at any of the characters or their authors. This combination of established and identifiable characters in a new setting is not the same as the post-modernist habit of using historical characters in fiction out of context to provide a metaphoric element. REPUTATION Sometimes the reputation of a parody outlasts the reputation of what is being parodied. For example, Don Quixote , which mocks the traditional Knight Errant tales, is much more well-known than the novel that inspired it, Amadis De Gaula (although Amadis is mentioned in the book). Another notable case is the Novel '' Shamela '' by Henry Fielding ( 1742 ), which was a parody of the gloomy Epistolary Novel '' Pamela, Or Virtue Rewarded '' ( 1740 ) by Samuel Richardson . Many of Lewis Carroll 's parodies, such as " You Are Old, Father William ", are much better known than the originals. Also, some artists carve out careers by making parodies. One of the best known examples is that of "Weird Al" Yankovic . His career of parodying other musical acts and their songs has outlasted many of the artists or bands he has parodied. It is worth mentioning that while he is not required under law to get permission to parody, as a personal rule, however, he does seek permission to parody a person's song before recording it. This is to help maintain good relations with others in the music industry, and has become something of a badge of honor for other artists, since many artists parodied by Yankovic felt that he would not choose to create a parody of a song or genre that was not successful. FILM PARODIES Some Genre Theorists , following Bakhtin , see parody as a natural development in the life cycle of any Genre ; this idea has proven especially fruitful for genre film theorists. Such theorists note that Western Movie s, for example, after the classic stage defined the conventions of the genre, underwent a parody stage, in which those same conventions were ridiculed and critiqued. Because audiences had seen these classic Westerns, they had expectations for any new Westerns, and when these expectations were inverted, the audience laughed. A subset of parody is '' Self-parody '' in which artists satirize themselves (as in Ricky Gervais 's '' Extras '') or their work (such as Antonio Banderas 's Puss In Boots in '' Shrek 2 ''), or an artist or genre repeats elements of earlier works to the point that originality is lost. COMMERCIAL PARODIES Now that anybody can crab a handycam and make a movie, spoofs emerged as a new form of entertainment on sites like www.youtube.com. Many examples like this Tnuva Spoof may be found all over the Internet. Advertising companies organize contests that can easily provide powerful insights of what's cool in the business at the moment. You Spoof Discovery showed viewer-submitted parodies of Discovery Channel shows. The official name of the show is "You Spoof Discovery: The ultimate viewer-submitted low-cost high-quality extremely entertaining Discovery parody special hosted by Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs, who also narrates the series American Chopper, American Hot Rod and Deadliest Catch". COPYRIGHT ISSUES Although a parody can be considered a stated that parody "is the use of some elements of a prior author's composition to create a new one that, at least in part, comments on that author's works." That commentary function provides some justification for use of the older work. See '' Campbell V. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. '' In 2001, the United States Court Of Appeals, 11th Circuit , in '' Suntrust V. Houghton Mifflin '', upheld the right of Alice Randall to publish a parody of '' Gone With The Wind '' called '' The Wind Done Gone '', which told the same story from the point of view of Scarlett O'Hara 's slaves, who were glad to be rid of her. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL USES Parody is closely related to Satire and is often used in conjunction with it to make social and political points. Examples include Swift 's A Modest Proposal , which satirizes English neglect of Ireland by parodying emotionally disengaged political tracts, and, in contemporary culture, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report , which parody a news broadcast and a talk show, respectively, to satirize political and social trends and events. However, satire is usually used when someone is earnestly trying to push for change. Parodies are sometimes done with respect and appreciation of the subject involved, while not being a heedless sarcastic attack. Parody has also been used to facilitate dialogue between cultures or subcultures. Sociolinguist and Gene Caponi regard parody as an important technique of Signifyin' , the African-American Rhetoric of indirect criticism and semantic innovation. EDUCATIONAL ASPECTS Parody is an important element of student writing, David Bartholomae argues, because students imitate and alter academic forms in an attempt to master those forms. Also, parody arguably sometimes makes Canonical works accessible to larger audiences by presenting them humorously; see, for example, parodies of Poe 's " The Raven " and " The Tell-Tale Heart " on The Simpsons . SEE ALSO
EXAMPLES Historical examples
Contemporary examples
Visual example Marcel Duchamp 's Dada ist painting LHOOQ parodies DaVinci 's Mona Lisa by marring it with a goatee and moustache. In keeping with his Dadist practices, which called artistic conventions and aesthetic assumptions into question, DuChamps paired his visual parody with a low pun; in French, when the letters "L.H.O.O.Q." are pronounced one after the other, the phrase sounds like "elle a chaud au cul", or "her ass is hot". REFERENCES
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