query re: Russian commonplace books
Rebecca Jane Stanton
rjs19 at COLUMBIA.EDU
Fri Sep 21 14:44:07 UTC 2007
Actually I have at least one friend in Petersburg who does keep what
would, I think, be best described as a commonplace book -- into which
she writes poems and other fragments of literature she's read that
strike a chord with her, effectively anthologizing them for personal
use. She produces it quite often when I'm around and the subject of
poetry comes up. I can't imagine she is alone in this -- especially
given the Russian affinity for books and libraries, the historical
scarcity of commercially produced books, the tradition of samizdat, etc.
-- but the question of whether it exists as a recognized cultural
phenomenon with a name, much less a known history, in Russia is one I'm
not in a position to answer.
Regards,
RJS
--
Rebecca Stanton
Assistant Professor of Russian
Dept. of Slavic Languages
Barnard College, Columbia University
3009 Broadway
New York, NY 10027
Frans Suasso wrote:
> I am affraid that putside the angosaxon world this phenomenon is
> completely unknown. The Germans do not have it, the French do'nt, the
> Dutch certainly not.
> Why should the Russians have it?
>
> Dr Frans Suasso,
> Naarden the Netherlands
----- Original Message -----
From: "Anne Fisher" <Anne.Fisher at WILLIAMS.EDU>
> To: <SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU>
> Sent: Friday, September 21, 2007 1:45 PM
> Subject: [SEELANGS] query re: Russian commonplace books
>
>
>> Dear SEELANGers,
>>
>> Can any of you point me to resources on Russian commonplace books? I
>> was having an interesting discussion with a (non-Slavicist)
>> colleague about the difference between commonplace books, ladies'
>> albums, and writers' notebooks, and realized that I've never come
>> across any mention of Russians (whether readers or writers, literati
>> or just literate) keeping a commonplace book.
>>
>> It doesn't help that I don't know what the Russian for "commonplace
>> book" is!
>>
>> Thanks for any leads,
>>
>> Annie
>>
>> ____________________
>>
>> Anne O. Fisher
>> Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian
>> Department of German and Russian
>> Williams College
>> Williamstown, MA 01267
>> anne.fisher AT williams.edu
>> office: 413.597.4723
>> fax: 413.597.3028
>
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