13

At a time when the demand for information about the activities of the intelligence services is constantly growing, and when the line between reality and fiction seems to be constantly blurred, fictional works about espionage meet a twofold requirement: on the one hand, the alleged revelation of these shadowy actors, whose structural opacity poses a challenge to the democratic principle of openness; on the other, their more effective concealment, under the guise of transparency. More than mere mirrors, which more or less realistically reflect an otherwise inaccessible world, they are a prerequisite for secrecy in a democracy.