Download file Illiteracy

Illiteracy refers to the inability to read and write at a functional level. According to studies, around 6.2 million adults in Germany are functional illiterates – a number that is hardly noticed by society because those affected develop decades-long strategies to hide their condition: They memorize cell phone numbers, ask others to read under the pretense of forgotten glasses, and avoid written material. This secret double life – everyday life as a permanent performance of normality – is highly productive literarily. As a special theme in thrillers, illiteracy functions on two levels: as a vulnerability of the main character, who thinks and acts brilliantly despite her limitation, and as a narrative mechanism that creates information asymmetries. Witnesses do not read files, perpetrators leave traces in writing that they cannot check – dramatic capital arises from an everyday limitation.