Seeing Classic Texts as Commonplace Books
Students in my Intellectual Heritage class at Temple University are asked to read 14 books, ranging from antiquity to the modern era, through two semesters. The books cover religion, literature, philosophy, science, history, and various social sciences. Though not intended as commonplace books, several books I teach, as well as other I reference throughout the semester, have the features and feel of commonplace books. Much of that has to do with authorship and composition, or compilation, of these texts, which scholars have argued about over centuries. I make this connection because I have my students keep commonplace books of their own.
The Intellectual Heritage sequence begins with a course called “The Good Life” and concludes the following semester in a course called “The Common Good.” Religion, literature and philosophy texts are comprised in the first sequence, and science, history, and social science texts in the second. Both sections span antiquity to modernity. Among the required religious texts is a selection from any of the books of the Bible or the Qur’an.
While the Talmud, as well as the Hadith and Sunnah, would make for more interesting commonplace book comparisons, Proverbs better exemplifies the commonplace approach, both in its structure and content. Robert Alter, in his translation The Wisdom Books (Norton) calls Proverbs “not merely an anthology but an anthology of anthologies. It is made up of six discrete units, each marked editorially as such at the beginning, with notable differences of emphasis and style at the beginning of each unit” (183). Chapter 7 even includes the exhortation: “My son, keep my sayings, and store up my commands within you….Bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart,” which may be taken literally as well metaphorically.
Ambrose Bierce
Links to Classroom Activities
Teaching Kids to Keep a Commonplace Book, Kathy Weitz, Simply Convivial
Commonplace Books in First-Year Writing, University of Mississippi, Writing and Rhetoric Teaching Hub
Asking Students to Keep a Commonplace Book, Geoffrey Sheehy, A Teacher’s Writes (blog)
Constructing Digital Commonplace Texts in the Classroom, Richard Beach, University of Minnesota
Teaching Composition Classes with Early Modern-Style “Commonplace Books,” Andrew Keener, Santa Clara University, Vade Mecum (blog)
Commonplace Book Assignment; A Second Try for Commonplace Books, Joseph M. Adelman, Framingham State University (blog)
Commonplace Book Assignment, Vimala Pasupathi, Hofstra University (PDF)
Structuring a Commonplace Book (Jenny Rallens’ Method), Thomas Burgess, Commonplace Corner (blog)