The current debate on standards and norms in literary studies focuses on what might be described as procedural standards in teaching, in scholarly work, and in quality management. This article argues that standards also fulfil vital epistemological functions, and that the lack of such standards in literary studies indicates the need for a new methodology. Using the example of narratology, the essay draws on the philosophical distinction between the context of discovery and the context of justification in order to discuss the limits of a concept-based approach to cross-disciplinary narrative research. By establishing a discourse on methods as standardized procedures for both theory construction and textual analysis, the essay makes the case for a broader understanding of methodology, one that includes theories of discovery and theories of justification.