Interactive Strategies in Victorian Academic Discourse: Citation in J. Ruskin’s The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century (1884)

This article analyses the Victorian writer J. Ruskin’s expression of identity in the written version of his academic lectures The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century (1884). His identity as a distinguished scholar emerges particularly from his interaction with the authors and works he cites in his text. The article therefore presents a quantitative and qualitative examination of the citation practices in the lectures, which are studied as an example of Late Modern academic discourse, by applying Hyland’s (2000) model of citation to the instances in the text. Background information is also provided on historical genre analysis, identity construction, the presentation and application of Hyland’s model and of the different categories and sub-categories of citation. Linguistic and discursive investigation of the lectures demonstrates that citations are used to give both positive and negative evaluations of the work of other authors. Above all, they are the main interactive strategy deployed by Ruskin to construct his own professional identity and to confirm his reputation as an eminent academic and public figure.