query re: Russian commonplace books
Alina Israeli
aisrael at AMERICAN.EDU
Fri Sep 21 15:08:10 UTC 2007
High school girls often have a notebook of favorite poem (maybe it's
a descendent of Al'bom of Pushkin's time). The habit wanes with age.
However this seems to be different from "commonplace books" http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonplace
On Sep 21, 2007, at 10:44 AM, Rebecca Jane Stanton wrote:
> 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
>
>
Alina Israeli
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington DC. 20016
(202) 885-2387
fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu
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