A post-literate society is a previously literate society in which people no longer read, write, or correspond, instead preferring to consume new forms of multimedia.
| Literature | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||||
| Oral literature | ||||||
|
||||||
| Major written forms | ||||||
|
||||||
| Prose genres | ||||||
|
||||||
| Poetry genres | ||||||
|
||||||
| Dramatic genres | ||||||
| History | ||||||
| Media | ||||||
| Lists and outlines | ||||||
| Theory and criticism | ||||||
 Literature portal | ||||||
Background
The term appears as early as 1962 in Marshall McLuhan's The Gutenberg Galaxy, albeit referring to the current society, in which literacy is ubiquitous.[1]
It differs from the reading revolution[2] of the 18th century as defined by Rolf Engelsing[3] as it refers to the contemporary decline in the 21st century. [4]
Its contemporary usage was referred to by the journalist and writer, James Marriott. [5] He was also interviewed on the BBC World Service as part of the Global Story.[6]
A post-literate society would differ from contemporary or historical oral cultures, which do not deploy writing systems and whose aesthetic traditions take the form of oral literature and oral history, aided by art, dance, and singing.
A post-literate society would have replaced the written word with recorded sounds (CDs, audiobooks), broadcast spoken word and music (radio), pictures (JPEG) and moving images (television, film, MPG, streaming video, video games, virtual reality). A post-literate society might still include people who are aliterate, who know how to read and write but choose not to. Most if not all people would be media literate, multimedia literate, visually literate, and transliterate.
Books
While a post-literate society is often invoked in the sci-fi genre, the idea of a post-literate society is an issue of philosophical relevance as well, in regards to McLuhan's work and his Global Carnival Theory.
In science-fiction societies are post-literate due to their anti-democratic nature, as in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Dan Simmons' novel Ilium, and Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story.
The nonfiction books Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman and Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges both observe a sudden rise of post-literate culture.[7]
See also
References
Footnotes
- McLuhan, Marshall (2014). The Gutenberg galaxy : the making of typographic man. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9781442612693. OCLC 993539009.
- "I want more! The revolution in reading in the eighteenth century". Die Welt der Habsburger. Retrieved 2026-04-10.
- Engelsing, Rolf (1974). Der Bürger als Leser : Lesergeschichte in Deutschland 1500-1800. Internet Archive. Stuttgart : Metzler. ISBN 978-3-476-00287-7.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link) - "The lamentable decline of reading". The Financial Times. 22 August 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - Marriott, James (2025-09-19). "The dawn of the post-literate society". Cultural Capital. Retrieved 2026-04-10.
- "The Global Story - The death of reading - BBC Sounds". BBC. Retrieved 2026-04-10.
- Hedges, Chris (2009). Empire of illusion : the end of literacy and the triumph of spectacle. New York: Nation Books. ISBN 9781568584379. OCLC 301887642.
Bibliography
- The Dawn of the Post-literate Age, by Patrick Tucker, THE FUTURIST Magazine, November–December 2009.
- The Gutenberg Galaxy, Marshall McLuhan, University of Toronto Press, 1962
- Empire of Illusion, Chris Hedges, 2009, ISBN 978-1-56858-437-9