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Postgraduate, Folklore Department of Moscow State University named after M. V. Lomonosov
Jeremiah Curtin, a prominent American anthropologist, famous for his transla- tions of novels by Senkevich, focused especially on Russian folk-tale and its translation. The ar- ticle seeks to investigate why, puts Russian folk-tales into the broad context of Curtin’s academic and social activities and examines peculiarity of his translation. It is first time, that Curtin’s detailed biography, including his work in the United States Foreign Service in Russia, is accessible to Russian reader. The article examines scholar’s concept of mythological and religious patterns universal for all nations. Curtin based it on mythological sources as well as on his own spiritual experience, espe- cially focusing on the image of the morning star. During last decades of 19th century he attempted to publish a multi-volumed folklore anthology of different nations in his translation. As a part of this work he took the first attempt to compare Indo-European folklore sources to American Indian mythologies. These studies enabled him to bring a new perspective to Russian folk-tale and its origins.
Barag L.G., Novikov N.V. (comp.) (1984– 1985) Narodnye russkie skazki A.N. Afanas’eva: V 3 t. [A.N. Afanasyev’s Russian folk-tales]. In 3 vol. Ed. by Chistov K.V., Pomerantseva E.V. Moscow. In Russian.
Collins C.L. (2008) Curtin, Jeremiah, and Alma Cardell Curtin. American National Biography Online. July 09. 2008. URL: http://www.anb.org/ articles/14/14-01161.html (retrieved: 16.02.2017). In English.
Curtin J. (1890) Myths and folklore of Ireland. Boston. In English.
Curtin J. (1890) Myths and folk-tales of the Russians, Western Slavs and Magyars. London. In English.
Curtin J. (1899) Creation myth of the primitive America in relation to the religious history and mental development of mankind. London; Edinburgh. In English.
Heath F. (1951) Jeremiah Curtin, traveler, linguist, ethnologist. The Wisconsin Magazine of History. (Autumn 1951). Vol. 35. No. 1. Pp. 17–20. In English.
Joseph S. (ed.) (1940) Memoirs of Jeremiah Curtin. Wisconsin. In English.
Korepova K.E. (2012) Russkaya lubochnaya skazka [Russian popular print fairy-tale]. Moscow. In Russian.
Mikoś M.J. (1990) Alma Cardell Curtin, the woman behind Jeremiah Curtin. Milwaukee History. Vol. 13 (Summer 1990). Pp. 53–68. In English.
Nalepin A.L. (2009) Dva veka russkogo fol’klora [Two centuries of Russian folklore]. Moscow. In Russian.
Newell W.W. (1891) Myths and folk-tales of the Russians, Western Slavs, and Magyars. By Jeremiah Curtin. American Anthropologist. January 1891. Vol. A4. Issue 1. Pp. 88–90. Ralston W.R. S. (1873) Russian Folk-Tales. London. In English.
Taylor Ed. B. (1989) Pervobytnaya kul’tura [Primitive culture]. Moscow. In Russian (transl. from English).