Language & Intercultural Communication
Editor: Dr John Corbett (University of Glasgow)
Associate Editor: Robert Crawshaw (Lancaster University)
Reviews and Criticism Editor: Dr Fiona J. Doloughan (University of Surrey)
Editorial Board: Gavin Jack (University of Stirling)
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Volume: 3 Number: 3 Page: 187–197
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Academic Literacy in Post-colonial Times: Hegemonic Norms and Transcultural Possibilities
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Joan Turner
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In this paper, I argue that it is important to bring proficiency in written English language into the frame of a critical pedagogy for academic literacy. This may at first seem a counter-intuitive goal
with connotations of constraint and convergence rather than opening up and diversity. However, what is often not taken into account in the notion of opening up new spaces of critique or new 'languages'
is that those new critical 'languages' operate in a dominant materially concrete, linguistic language, namely English. The opportunity to manipulate the representational resources of English therefore is
a necessary pedagogical goal if one wants to open up participation in academic literacy practices to a wider selection of people than is currently the case. By on the one hand, raising awareness of subjectification
into the rhetorical norms of academic writing by pointing up their historical construction, and on the other, looking at an example of a Korean PhD student working with the theoretical discourses of post-colonialism
and psychoanalysis in English, I hope to refigure the prevailing assumptions on attention to form in written English.
© Multilingual Matters 2003
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