Pastiche

Definition

According to Merriam-Webster, pastiche is a literary, artistic, musical, or architectural work that imitates the style of a previous work. (Pastiche) Britannica explains that pastiche combines copies of various parts of another artist’s work to form a new composition, adding a few connecting elements of the artist’s own to make it a convincing presentation. (Bonner)
Pastiche is considered a key feature of the postmodern movement because it embodies the movement's rejection of traditional artistic hierarchies and its embrace of diversity, playfulness, and intertextuality.
When compared to parody, pastiche does so respectfully. Unlike parody, which mocks and ridicules the original work, pastiche highlights or pays tribute to the original works.
The word pastiche is a French derivative of the Italian word pasticcio, which refers to a pie filling made from various ingredients. In other words, in pastiche, an artist takes a work's central idea or theme and uses it to create an original piece. Pastiche also describes a combination of styles within a single work, such as a grouping of ideas, characters, techniques, or genres.

HOWEVER

Pastiche should not be thought of as plagiarism, pastiche art is never a direct copy of an artist or their work but an amalgamation or acknowledgement of past styles that have been chosen for specific reasons and presented in a new unique way. (Pastiche: Analysis)

Examples (there are many)

E.L. Doctorow – Ragtime

Doctorow’s novel mixes historical fiction with elements of fantasy, integrating real historical figures like Harry Houdini and Henry Ford into a fictional narrative.

Umberto Eco – The Name of the Rose

Eco’s novel blends detective fiction, historical narrative, and philosophical discourse, drawing on styles from medieval chronicles to Sherlock Holmes-like mysteries.

Jasper Fforde – The Eyre Affair

This humorous and imaginative novel places its protagonist, Thursday Next, in a world where she can enter the plots of classic novels, including Jane Eyre.

T.S. Eliot – The Waste Land

Eliot’s modernist poem incorporates fragments of different literary and cultural references, from ancient mythology to Shakespeare and modern slang.

Anthony Burgess – A Clockwork Orange

Burgess’s novel pastiches dystopian literature while creating its own unique slang language, "Nadsat." The invented language draws from Russian, Cockney, and other linguistic influences, imitating the fragmentation of modern culture.

Some examples from different art areas:

Film: Pulp Fiction, Moulin Rouge!, The Big Lebowski, Indiana Jones

Static art: Robert Rauschenberg – Retroactive I

Banksy – Kate Moss

Music: Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody

Andrew Lloyd Webber – The Phantom of the Opera