The Gold Standard in English Literary Discourse: Some Functions of the Academic Article in Peer-Reviewed Journals in South Africa

Abstract

Summary This article is based on a completed research project in which the discipline of English studies, as manifested in the discourse of published, peer-reviewed academic articles over the period 1958-2004-what we call the "gold standard" of academic literary discourse-forms the object of analysis. The focus of the article is to delineate and describe three major functions of the discipline as manifested by its gold standard, namely career formation, knowledge formation, and canon formation. Our general aim is to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the functions of peer-reviewed journals, to reveal the presence of rules governing discursive production, and to lay bare historical shifts in approach and choice of disciplinary objects.