How to force csquotes to show the quotations marks in block quotes?

Question

How can I force the csquotes package to always show quotations marks in my block quotes, regardless of the language etc...?

Tried this, but no cigar:

\usepackage{csquotes}[english=british] % hopefully this will show quotes

Also, there was a solution here using:

\renewenvironment{quoteblock}{\openautoquote}{\closeautoquote}

but it seems like quoteblock was removed in a recent version.

Answer 1

Indeed quoteblock was removed in version 5.0 of csquotes. The behaviour is controlled now by \mkblockquote for \blockquote and relatives, and by the pair \mkbegdispquote and \mkenddispquote for the environment displayquote and relatives. All these have to be redefined:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[british]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}
  % for commands "\blockquote" and related:
  \renewcommand{\mkblockquote}[4]{\openautoquote#1\closeautoquote#2#4#3}
  % for environments "displayquote" and related:
  \renewcommand{\mkbegdispquote}[2]{\openautoquote}
  \renewcommand{\mkenddispquote}[2]{\closeautoquote#1#2}

\usepackage{kantlipsum}% for some dummy text

\begin{document}

\kant[1]

\noindent\hrulefill

\blockquote{%
% extract from \kant[2]%
Let us suppose that the noumena have nothing to do with necessity,
since knowledge of the Categories is \enquote{\textbf{a posteriori}}.
Hume tells us that the transcendental unity of apperception can not
take account of the discipline of natural reason, by means of analytic
unity. As is proven in the ontological manuals, it is obvious that the
transcendental unity of apperception proves the validity of the
Antinomies.%
}

\noindent\hrulefill

\begin{displayquote}
% extract from \kant[3]%
As is shown in the writings of Aristotle, the things in themselves
(and it remains a mystery why this is the case) are a representation
of time. Our concepts have lying before them the paralogisms of
natural reason, but our \enquote{\textbf{a posteriori}} concepts have
lying before them the practical employment of our experience.
\end{displayquote}

\end{document}

Note also, that the language is set by babel here, and csquotes reads this setting (see package option autostyle). I intentionally added an \enquote command (marked bold in output) inside of both blockquote variations. By the way polyglossia would also be possible.

---

Should this not be what you want, I can only suggest that you read (in the csquotes documentation) what is written, from package options threshold, thresholdtype, and perhaps parthreshold to the command \blockquote and the section for display environments.

Answer 2

A simple and elegant solution, is to use the package quoting, with the option begintext and endtext. An MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage[begintext=``, endtext='']{quoting}
\SetBlockEnvironment{quoting}
\SetBlockThreshold{1} 
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenx}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[nopar]{lipsum}

\begin{document}

\lipsum[1]

\blockquote{\lipsum[3]}

\lipsum\par

\end{document}

Which will give the output: