DOI: 10.46726/H.2026.1.5
The article analyzes how the generally accepted vision of the Middle Ages is interpreted in the discourse of Neil Gaiman's graphic novel. The authors are interested in whether a work of popular culture, which combines text and graphic components, is able to go beyond the primitive set of visual codes and aesthetics that do not touch upon the deep moments of the historical period in all the diversity of social and moral norms, economic, political and philosophical components. It is concluded that the writer managed to establish a connection between the medieval genre of vision and postmodernist ideas. Neo-medievalism as an approach to the study of modern texts opens up new horizons in the interpretation of the graphic novel. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the products of popular culture as one of the options for reflecting on the nature of dreams, free choice of an individual, and the balance of power. The writer creates a meta-narrative with the involvement of numerous historical and literary allusions, when each character turns into an archetype embodying various aspects of the subconscious.
For citation: Baronova E.V., Volgina O.V. Neo-medieval studies and intertextuality in N. Gaiman's graphic novel “The Sandman”, Ivanovo State University Bulletin, Series: Humanities, 2026, iss. 1, pp. 39—46.