Abstract
The paper examines the role of memory in literary texts set in the Otherworld and depicting the life after death (Atwood, Hodrová, Kasack, Kehlmann, Maron, Matheson, Nadolny, etc.). These works prove that recollections not only preserve the continuity of life narratives after death but they also play a crucial role in characters' transformation, in construing their Otherworld appearance (a very important motif in this context is the image of body and experiencing one's body) and in creating the spaces of the Otherworld itself (the realm after death being a metaphor for the state of consciousness).
The memory is securely located in space, especially in the structure of buildings, and yet it is the architecture that reflects the changes of time: buildings absorb and at the same time reflect human thoughts, memories, energies and dreams. In the Otherworld characters recollect their life - that what has been dead awakens symbolically.
Thus, memory forms and preserves the characters 'identity after death as they can take nothing else than memories to the other side in most of these literary works. Although the recollections of the gone life usually gradually fade away and the only thing living is what the character is feeling at that moment, as can be seen in works of Jahnn, Kasack and others, it appears that the Otherworld shadows never lose memory entirely and recollection plays a significant role.