In order to help us read the course texts analytically and prepare to discuss them in class and in written work, this course will require a weekly response to the readings. Instead of writing interpretations, however, you will be following a practice with a history dating back to the Renaissance: commonplacing, or compiling and organizing excerpts of one’s reading in a notebook. Historically, the commonplace book was a bound paper object, only sometimes shared. For this class, however, we will use a group blog—the Modernism Commonplace Blog—as our commonplace book. A reader who is commonplacing looks for passages of text—short or long—which catch her eye, either because they are interesting in themselves, or because they spark a connection to some other reading she has done or some problem she has been thinking about. When she finds such a passage, she copies it into the course’s commonplace blog. Traditionally, readers hand wrote these passages, which helped fix the passage in memory by associating through the kinesthetic process of copying. For this class you may choose to either hand type or copy and paste each passage into a unique blog post. You should also reflect upon the passage in the comments section in about 8-10 sentences—explaining the passage’s significance, why you chose it, etc.—and tagging each post appropriately. You may also contribute to the course commonplace book by linking to ephemera related to the reading and/or class discussions. You will be responsible for posting at least two commonplace blog entries each week.
Over time, then, the course commonplace book will become a record of our class reading—not just a checklist of volumes consumed but an account of your special interests, your favorite passages and idiosyncratic musings, your questions and your insights. Ultimately, the Modernism Commonplace Blog should serve as a resource: it holds those parts of the readings that we think we may want to use again, to quote, to imitate, to criticize, to write about. Think of the ordinary meaning of “commonplace”: a phrase that gets repeated by everyone. A commonplace blog is a source of material for reuse. In this class, the material will be a source for you to use in your writing about the course texts.
When you choose an excerpt, you may pick anything that catches your attention as particularly significant, suggestive, difficult, infuriating or otherwise interesting.
Each entry should include the following:
- A title (Always include the last name of the text’s author in the title);
- One quotation from the course reading;
- A citation: The author, name of book/essay, and page number will do.
- Tags: Tag the post with as many labels as you like. At the very least, tag the post with the last name of the author you are quoting from and the title of the reading. (My hope is that you will tag your entries with themes, subjects, characters, etc., and that the tagging system will provide a useful organization tool for you while writing papers)
- A 6-10 sentence reader response comment from you in the comments section of the post.
Individual commonplace entries will not be graded, only checked for timely completion. You will receive no credit for an entry that is not posted when I check the blogs.
Grading: You will receive one of the following three grades for the semester’s work on the commonplace book:
- A (100%). No more than 1 missing entries; entries show clear effort and care.
- B (85%). No more than 2 missing entries; entries show clear effort.
- C (75 %). No more than 3 missing entries; entries are complete.
- D (65 %). No more than 4 missing entries;
- F (0). 5 or more blog entries missing. Effort lacking
*Many of the words and ideas for this assignment come directly from Rutgers University Principles of Literary Study course: http://sp13-plsf.blogs.rutgers.edu/commonplacing-guide/
