Parody

New Critical Idiom

by Simon Dentith

This lively introduction demonstrates the importance of parody for literary and cultural studies, clearly explaining complex arguments around it.

224 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2000

Reviews

[Paul Bryant]

Due to overwhelming public demand, meaning that at least THREE different people asked me to do this, here is a list of the parodies of some books I have done in order to mock, abuse and hold them up to ridicule. Or not….!

Because sometimes parody can be affectionate, like this one of Pilgrim’s Progress or Jean Rhys’s After Leaving Mr Mackenzie or No Country for Old Men (in which my fellow reviewer Manny Rayner gruesomely assassinates me) or this one for Life After Life which is a novel I loved. And when I read 11.22.63 I thought…. This review writes itself!

And sometimes an author has such an unusual style I think oh I really must try that, it looks like fun, like WG Sebald in The Rings of Saturn or this one of Finnegans Wake

And who could resist parodying Lady Constance and Mellors in Lady Chatterley’s Lover - well, I could not resist that. Nor could I resist the charms of Moll Flanders or the general crazed violence of hick lit in Crimes in Southern Indiana

I’m not sure if this surreal sketch actually is a parody but it was fun anyway, in which some famous literary characters like Eeyore react to Notes from Underground, like those “Kids React to Donald Trump” videos you get.

But mostly parodies are just plain vicious, you’ll be glad to know:

Valley of the Dolls
I Capture the Castle
The Little Prince
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Don’t Cry
Last Orders
Sophie’s World
The Busconductor Hines
The Son
Bury This
The Anthologist
The Talented Mr Ripley


(I seem to have found a sub-genre dedicated entirely to Winnie the Pooh. Perhaps because it’s like shooting fish in a barrel:
Winnie the Pooh
Complete Winnie the Pooh
Heart of Darkness)

Some poetry parodies for the high-minded:

Ariel
Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

And finally the parody that so many people seem to like – boy, I wisht I could do another one like this

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

[Daisy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parody is all around us – from the Simpsons to Aristophanes, even Paul Simon took time out from banging his bongos to parody Bob Dylan.

Parody is so all pervasive that perhaps like a bad smell we just become inured to it and no longer recognise it. If you want to be more aware and be given some examples through history, some fairly obscure, this succinct guide is a good starting point.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent volume from Routledge's The New Critical Idiom series. Dentith provides a general overview of parody from ancient Greek drama through postmodernism. In the middle part of the book he spends considerable time on English poetry and burlesque dramas, including many somewhat obscure examples, and it's not clear why he does this until the final chapter on postmodernism reveals that he has been sowing the seeds for counterexamples to Frederic Jameson's formulation of parody being the cultural dominant of our era with its attendant critique of late capitalism. The point of Dentith's analysis is to show that in earlier eras parody was as vibrant and had it's own corrective agenda. Our era doesn't have a lock on parody; it's just harder to recognize, from our current vantage point, the parody of earlier eras.

What I especially appreciated about Dentith's writing style is how rarely he uses footnotes--only 9 times in 189 pages! He liberally quotes examples and crossreferences them to the bibliography, but for his analyses he writes from his own knowledge rather than by stringing together paraphrases from other sources. it's great to just read straight through without constantly having to refer to footnotes.

The book has a solid glossary, bibliography, and index, which makes it a well-rounded introductory (and teachable) text on parody.

[Yağmur · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was such a fun theory read!!

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

One thing Denith does really well in this book is attempt to navigate the treacherous waters of definition. In works on parody and adaptation, definition seems to occupy a disproportionate amount of time and space (which is partly why adaptation studies remains such an under-theorized field). But in this introductory text, Denith considers a variety of different definitions, debates, and examples of parody to try and provide a good working definition that is broad enough to be meaningful and is simultaneously purposeful enough that it describes not just a haphazard process but a purposeful aesthetic choice.

[Sandra N · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love parody so much. A recent parody I've come across combines the form with poetry. Check out These Times! A Parody in Song form...also The Vampire Handbook, the former making fun of celebrities and the latter poking fun at the recent vampire culture. These Times! A Parody in Song form The Vampire Handbook

[Sanni]

Really helpful, delivers what promises.