ACADEMIC JOURNAL
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ISSN 2542-1077 (Print) ISSN 1994-5973 (Online) |
Literature of the peoples of the world |
Kolokolova O. A. | Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences |
Keywords: Eino Karhu Finno-Ugrian studies history of Finnish literature Karelian-Finnish folklore Ingrian folklore |
Summary: The article is devoted to the centenary of a prominent philologist E. G. Karhu, the Doctor of Philology
and Professor at the Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian
Academy of Sciences. The author systematizes, describes, and summarizes his academic achievements, which
determines the novelty of the reported research. The article is aimed at describing Karhu’s contribution to the study of
Karelian and Finnish literatures, Russian-Finnish literary relations, and Karelian-Finnish folklore. The main stages of
Karhu’s academic biography and his key works are investigated with the special focus on his translation work. Karhu
was the pioneer in the study of Russian-Finnish literary and cultural relations, he investigated the evolution of Finnish
literature written in Finnish and Swedish, from its origins to the post-war modernism (the “second modernism”), and conducted a historical review of the main genres of Karelian and Ingrian folklore taking into account the connection between folklore and literary traditions. Karhu also studied Elias Lonnrot’s biography as well as the genre specifics and problematics of the Kalevala epic. The scholar explored local material in the light of European and world traditions
placing it within a wide historical and cultural context. The reported study led to the conclusion that Karhu’s main research tools, the historic approach and the use of a wide context, enabled him to solve large-scale problems of Russian philological science in the field of comparative literature studies and the systematic study of the history of Finnish literature. |
Displays: 327; |