Serious Premise vs. Entertainment

Essay from the year 2007 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, University of Leipzig (Institut für Anglistik), course: ¿The Literary Essay (British Studies)¿, language: English, abstract: In modern literature, the combination of conflicting themes in a novel is a popular means to break with mundane conventions. Unorthodox approaches to serious topics are more popular than they have ever been previously. This tendency provokes public discussion about the correctness and adequacy of controversial approaches. A recent example is the new satirical film about Hitler and the Third Reich, The truly truest truth about Adolf Hitler, starring the German comedian Helge Schneider as Hitler. There is a heated debate on whether or not this unusual way of presenting the past distorts the historical facts and thus promotes a false idea of history. The general public point out the importance of morality, political and ethic correctness when it comes to these new ways of looking at a serious topic. These criteria are to be analysed in the novel A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby.