Readerly

Readerly is a label in literary criticism used to classify texts that invite a straightforward, easily navigated reading experience. Readerly works tend to present linear plots, stable characters, and clearly signposted meanings, encouraging readers to accept the text's given interpretations with minimal effort. The term is most often invoked in contrast to writerly texts, which resist closure and require active interpretation.

Roland Barthes introduced the pair readerly and writerly in his analysis of how readers interact with texts, notably in S/Z (1970). In English usage the terms describe two modes: readerly texts are legible and consumable, offering a ready-made reading; writerly texts demand effort, invite multiple readings, and position the reader as a co-creator. The distinction is frequently debated, and many works contain both tendencies.

Applications span literature, film, and media studies. Examples typically cited as readerly include conventional realist novels and genre fiction with clear endings; writerly examples include modernist or metafictional works that foreground reading as a constructive act. The concept remains a heuristic device rather than a strict taxonomy, and critics caution that texts can blend modes or resist simple labeling.