A pastiche is any work of art that imitates the style of another artist or artists. Pastiches are not meant to ridicule the original style in the way that a parody does; instead, a pastiche respects the original style and often pays some homage to it. In literature, a pastiche usually is a light-hearted imitation that is jocular while celebrating the original. Therefore, a pastiche is always an example of intertextuality, because the text cannot occur without the original that is being imitated. Some examples of pastiche do not rely on only one source, but instead mimic many different sources in the same work of literature.

The word pastiche comes first from the Italian word pasticcio, which later became pastiche in French, and refers to a pie or pâté with a mix of diverse ingredients. The definition of pastiche took on a figurative meaning when it began to refer to works created by more than one artist, or works that incorporate styles from more than just the primary author.