Transformationen von Jenseitsreisen als literarischem Topos in Neil Gaimans The Sandman

This thesis deals with the phenomenon of the journey to the beyond as a literary topos and explores its social relevance and genealogy from antiquity to the present day. By examining Neil Gaiman's Sandman, the question is posed as to how the afterlife journey as a topos could not lose its relevance even in literary modernity, but rather, through processes of skillful transformations of its essential facets which are shown throughout the centuries, not lose its fascination even for today's readers. Special attention will be paid not only to the intermedial transformation processes, but also to the functionality that the journey to the beyond assumes for readers in the overall concept of society.