Pastiche as A Postmodern Technique in Caryl Churchill’s Vinegar Tom (1976)

Abstract

This paper examines pastiche as a postmodern technique that is well-applied in Caryl Churchill’s Vinegar Tom (1976). It is crucial when dealing with aesthetic of postmodernism aesthetic for both pastiche and superficiality. Pastiche
permits for reproducing in a space in which stylistic novelty is no longer possible. It means that all is left for imitating old-fashioned styles, to speak their voices with the styles in the imaginary manner. However, Churchill wrote other plays such as Traps (1978), Cloud Nine (1979), Top Girls (1982) and A Mouthful of Birds (1986). Most of Churchill’s plays tackled theme of violence against women for her being a feminist playwright and her own interest in destabilizing dominant ideologies. This play is analyzed from postmodern perspective in general and in how postmodern techniques such as irony, parody, fragmentation, self-consciousness, minimalism, maximalism and the like were applied to show the skillfully Caryl Churchill and her contemporaries have employed such techniques in their plays. This study adopted a poststructuralist