Conclusion

Abstract

In its handling of literacy and textuality, the J.T. negotiates a balance between two apparently opposing traditions. On the one hand, Albrecht draws on an ascetic tradition that denigrates the written (as opposed to the spoken) word as corporeal, residual, and inanimate. Just as the J.T. takes an ascetic stance on carnality in general, so does it implicitly associate writing with the body, with imperfection and ultimately with death—the inscriptions on the body of the doomed Tschinotulander making this connection particularly clear. On the other hand, Albrecht’s work also endorses the topos of God as a writer and of the universe as an interprétable script with which human beings have a duty to engage intellectually. Accordingly, although the J.T. argues that literacy—understood in the broadest possible sense—is essential if one is to live properly, the work is also fundamentally concerned with highlighting the difficulties inherent in the process of reading.