Eine intermediale Literaturadaption: »Sandmann« von M. Mikolajczak und J. Piotrowski

[Machine translation] “The graphic novel [...] is probably the only form of art that can be considered a child of our time,” claims Italian essayist and journalist Goffredo Fofi, who emphasizes the topicality, diversity and expressive freedom of the so-called 'ninth art' (A. Tosti). In this regard, Sandmann (2019) by M. Mikolajczak and J. Piotrowski proves particularly suitable for demonstrating the innovative and inter-media potential of literary comics., This graphic novel is characterized by a narrow and original approach to the source text, as the back of the book announces, where the adaptation is described as a “fictional sequel, [...] scary story and psychological thriller.” Content and linguistic fragments of E. T. A. Hoffmann's text are creatively “assembled” with inventions on a pictorial and textual level, as well as on the level of the characters, their characterization and functionalization. The perspective and narrative strategies are rooted in the narrative, but also differ significantly from it in order to emphasize topics such as psychopathy and eroticism, which make the work more attractive to contemporary and not necessarily specifically preformed recipients., The pictorial references to Expressionist films such as Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari — which connect Sandman with earlier literary comics such as Dino Battaglia's Olimpia (1970) — as well as echoes of generally known scary characters such as the Monster in Alien or Gollum in The Lord of the Rings are also extremely interesting. Pictorial quotes in literary comics also form “a link between comic history and art history” (M. Schmitz-Emans), as Sandmann also proves by stylizing paintings by Botticelli, Schiele and Gauguin, among others, challenging the reader's visual memory. The eye prevails on all levels., The original and compelling montage of pictorial and textual quotations in this graphic novel is sometimes disorienting, but the knowledge of 'hypotext' (G. Genette) serves as a helpful compass for those recipients who want to accompany Nathanael and Coppelius in the depth of the text. “Adaptation is a form of repetition without replication” (L. Hutcheon): Sandmann by M. Mikolajczak and J. Piotrowski is convincing proof of this.