and writerly (lisible and scriptible) French literary theorist Barthes, Roland proposed these terms in S/Z (1970), translated as S/Z (1974) to distinguish between literary works that because of their specific formal qualities either constrain the reader to adhere closely to the text with little or no room for interpretive manoeuvre (readerly), or, demand that the reader work hard to make sense of the text and effectively contribute to its very writing (writerly). The first kind of text renders the reader passive, while the latter variety forces the reader to become active. Barthes classifies so-called classical or realist texts, such as George Eliotâs Middlemarch (1871â2) and HonorĂ© de Balzacâs EugĂ©nie Grandet (1833), as readerly because there is a central organizing plot (usually in the form of an enigma---either something has happened or is about to happen, but it isnât immediately known what this is) around which the story develops in a very structured fashion---it is always known who is speaking, who they are speaking to and what they are doing and why. In contrast, a writerly text, and for Barthes this generally means the modernism works of experimental authors like James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, offers the reader no such clarity of attribution. It is, therefore, a more plural text in Barthesâs view, implying that it gives the reader greater freedom to construct meanings for themselves. As Jameson, Fredric argues in The Modernist Papers (2007), there is an undisclosed âcold warâ ideology and politics behind this concept which wants to equate the readerly text with so-called âclosedâ or totalitarian societies and the writerly text with âopenâ or democratic societies (the terms open and closed are adapted from Eco, Umbertoâs famous 1962 essay, âThe Poetics of the Open Workâ). This distinction has fallen into a state of relative disuse, undoubtedly in part because its politics are no longer relevant, but also because it is formally untenable: as several detractors of modernists works have argued, it is just as plausible to say that writerly texts are tyrannical because they deny the reader the comfort of a bit of sense. See also work and text. Further Reading: C. Belsey Critical Practice (1980).