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Russian Love Charms in a Comparative Light

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Charms, Charmers and Charming

Part of the book series: Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic ((PHSWM))

Abstract

The comparative study of Russian charms [zagovory] has its own traditions, reaching back to the works of such famous scholars from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as Buslaev, Afanas’ev, Veselovskii, Zelinskii, Mansikka, and Poznanskii. In recent years Russian charms have been examined primarily in comparison with the charms of other Slavic peoples (Agapkina, Toporkov 1990; Kharitonova 1991; Kliaus 2000; Agapkina 2002; Levkievskaia 2002; Toporkov 2002; Worobec 1995). There have also been attempts to compare Russian magical texts with German and ancient Indian texts (Toporov 1969; Toporova 1996: 108–23).

This chapter was written with the support of the Historic-philological Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences under the programme ‘Russian Culture in World History’ and the project ‘Russian Folklore in the Nearest Ethnic Surroundings’.

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    Jonathan Roper (Teaching Fellow in English Language) (Teaching Fellow in English Language)

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Toporkov, A. (2009). Russian Love Charms in a Comparative Light. In: Roper, J. (eds) Charms, Charmers and Charming. Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230583535_10

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