Fredric Jameson suggests that pastiche is a key characteristic of cultural production in the age of postmodernism. In modern times, the existence of an autonomous subject was crucial for artistic and cultural production. This allowed the artist, as a subject, to address their consumer as a subject, thereby influencing them. However, with the decline of effect, the artist's unique individuality, once a foundational principle, has been minimized to a neutral and objectifying form of communication in the postmodern age.
With the fragmentation of subjectivity, it's unclear what postmodern artists and authors should do besides referencing the past and imitating expired styles. This approach, which Jameson calls pastiche, is an "empty parody" devoid of profound or hidden meanings.
Pastiche, like parody, imitates a unique style but lacks the intent and substance of parody, having neither satirical impulse nor a "yin" revealed by the "yang". The postmodern artist resorts to pastiche because they can't create new aesthetic forms, only replicate old ones without generating new meanings.
Pastiche results in what architectural history terms "historicism", which Jameson describes as a random cannibalization of past styles. This cannibalism, or pastiche, is evident across all areas of cultural production but is most pronounced in global American television and Hollywood culture.
When the past is portrayed through pastiche, it results in a "loss of historicity". The past is depicted as a shimmering illusion, a form of postmodern history Jameson labels as "pop history". This is history based on the pop images produced by commercial culture. Nostalgic or retro films and books, which seemingly provide historical accounts, are actually manifestations of this pastiche pop history. They apply our own superficial stereotypes to times no longer accessible to us.
Jameson extensively discusses E.L. Doctorow's "Ragtime" as a postmodern novel and references George Lucas's "American Graffiti" as a movie attempting to capture a lost reality in U.S. history.
According to Jameson, pastiche is the only mode of cultural production permitted by postmodernism.
