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Abstract:

This article is devoted to the culturological analysis of key texts of children’s literature. It is divided into three parts, in each of which there is a speech about Pamela Travers’s texts (a cycle about the magic nurse Mary Poppins), fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen and the cult Soviet book by Lazar Lagin about the magic assistant Old Man Khottabych, who served to the Solomon King. All these works, despite their differences, are united by the general idea put in them by authors. They bear young and older readers the esoteric meanings available to the few, but perceived by the majority.
Here it is about the concept of “big and small tradition of the European culture” offered by the author at the beginning of the 2000th. Based on this concept, becomes possible to decipher fairy tales with the aid of the alchemical conceptual system. Reading them at mature age we can see in the texts, known from our childhood, references to Ancient Greek myths, esoteric doctrines and various philosophical systems. In the works of Hans Christian Andersen, Pamela Travers and Lazar Lagin a large role plays so called “small tradition of the European culture”. It is connected with the fact that mystics, esoterics, carriers of secret knowledge try to influence the future through new generations. The fact that the small tradition has survived, remaining a secret throughout centuries, is a result of its provident look forward, its attention to children. The rational view of the world which gives secondary education, thus, is balanced with the mysticism going from fairy tales and children’s books. Combining emotionality and rationality, the child gets chance to grow the harmonious personality capable to choose different types of reactions to the world, from archaic to modern.