Parody

What is a parody?

A parody is a work of literature written in the style of another author or written work, often fiction (prose). Imagine looking at a reflection of yourself in water. Now throw a stone in: immediately there will be ripples that change or distort the reflection. Parody works in a similar way: like a distorted reflection of the original.

Parody is mostly used to poke fun at a perceived weakness. It can also be used to suggest a new interpretation of an idea; usually in a humorous way.

For instance, a potter makes a beautiful vase with a picture of Apollo on it. His assistant, feeling it’s time for a change, makes a copy - but draws a top hat and Groucho Marx moustache on Apollo. The copy becomes a parody. The figure of Apollo may still be as fine as the original, but our perception will have changed from awe to sympathetic humour - or possibly outrage.

Other words for parody include to lampoon (a verb), to/a send-up (verb and noun), to/a take-off (verb and noun), and to/a caricature (verb and noun).

Some examples of literary parody are:

• Fielding - Shamela (1740)

• Jane Austen - Northanger Abbey (1818)

• Thomas Love Peacock - Nightmare Abbey (1818)

• James Joyce - Ulysses (1918)

Shamela (1740)

Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded, was published in 1740. The story follows Pamela, a maidservant, in her prudent navigation of a relationship with her late mistress’s son, until she ultimately marries him. The story is narrated mostly through Pamela’s letters and journal entries to her parents.

An immediate bestseller, Pamela was widely imitated - although not always admiringly. In the same year (1740), Henry Fielding published his parody Shamela only five months after Pamela came out. In Shamela, the virtuous Pamela is revealed to be a very naughty woman who deliberately manipulates her wealthy master into marrying her. Fielding wrote his parody in protest at what he considered the moral hypocrisy of Pamela.

Northanger Abbey (1818)

Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is the story of imaginative Catherine Morland, an avid reader of gothic novels, who sees everything through the tint of Gothic Romanticism. While staying in Bath she meets Henry Tilney and is invited home by his father General Tilney. The General lives at Northanger Abbey and is a widower - so according to Catherine’s Gothic precepts, he must have murdered his wife. The abbey is old - and therefore, must be haunted. There are rooms closed off in the abbey - so there must be a tremendous secret hidden within. A series of misunderstandings follow before Catherine, a little wiser than before, can marry Henry.

Austen makes fun of the Gothic novel, in particular Ann Radcliffe’s novels, by including some of its most popular tropes: old houses and ruined castles, locked rooms, and mystery. She then explains them away with common sense and humour, presenting the story as a comedy of manners.

Nightmare Abbey (1818)

Later Thomas Love Peacock also used the traits of the Gothic novel to make fun of both the Gothic genre and the Romantics - which included several of his friends - by writing Nightmare Abbey (1818). Peacock was friends with several of the Romantic greats, in particular with Shelley.

Peacock felt it was time to hold up a mirror for the Romantics to look at themselves in. They might be producing some quality work, but perhaps they were taking themselves too seriously. Nightmare Abbey is a good-humoured poke in the ribs at his friends; it seems it was taken in good part, as Shelley pronounced himself ‘delighted with Nightmare Abbey’. (Shelley, Letter to T.L.Peacock, June 1819)

The plot of Nightmare Abbey features the dilemma of Scythrop Glowry who tries to choose between the affections of two women, Marionetta and Stella. This reflects Shelley’s real-life triangular relationships, first with Harriet Westbrook and Mary Godwin (Mary Shelley) and later with Mary and her half-sister Claire Claremont. Lord Byron, Shelley and Coleridge are parodied as the characters Cypresse, Scythrop and Flosky respectively.

Ulysses (1918)

As the title suggests, James Joyce mirrors Homer’s Illiad, using the idea of Ulysses the wanderer. In the original Illiad, the Odyssey is the story of Ulysses’ return home after the battle of Troy. The journey takes years - part of Ulysses’ lifetime.

In Joyce’s Ulysses, we follow the wanderings of two characters, Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom across Dublin over the course of one day until eventually, they meet. The book closes with a monologue by Bloom’s wife Molly.

Joyce roughly follows the chapters of the Odyssey and assigns his characters with the principal roles of the Odyssey: Dedalus is Telemachus, Bloom is Ulysses and Molly is Penelope.