''Adult word'' in contemporary poetry for children

The concept of ''cross-writing'' is related to the newtrend in modern Russian literature. A numerous group of texts emerged that addresses both to the adultreaders and children at the same time. Thus, inter-penetration of two kinds of literature - for adults andchildren - occurs. As a result, works intended for children change substantially. They containvocabulary, elements of plot and signs of author's mentality, which are not peculiar to children'sgenres.Signs of stranger's perception of the world in poetry for children is defined in the article as ''adultword''. Three types of ''adult word'' in lyric poetry are classified.The first way of cross-writing is ironic reduction of vocabulary that is incomprehensible to thechild. In B. Khan's, A. Givargizov's and M. Pershin's verses the child invents new meanings for ''adult''words that are senseless to him. This is one of the traditional sources of the comical in children'spoetry. Explaining the meaning of words in his own way, the child reveals stock phrases andstereotypes of adults. Poetry for children discloses the discredited commonplace language in a postmoderniststyle. Poetry for children parodies prose genres as well: the detective story, the businessletter, the brochure. This type of children's verses can be named poetry with role-inversion because themain character copies and distorts the way the adult behaves.The next way of ''adult word'' functioning is addressing to samples of classic culture, to texts ofearlier ages. A typical example is I. Shevchuk's quatrain ''Solitude'' beginning with ''And bored! / Andsad! / And nobody to give a hand!'' Apart from verses of I. Shevchuk, allusions and elements ofintertext occur in G. Lukomnikov and G. Kruzhkov children's poetry. This type of poetry brings thechild and the adult together. The text supposes multiple reading and forms cultural consciousness, itencourages to move from the aesthetic impression to comprehension of the deeper meaning of art.Initially, the reader catches just the primary surface meaning in the verse but as one grows one is ableto comprehend the author's play, the multilayer semantics.The third type of ''adult word'' is mostly observed at the lyric plot level. Poetry for childrendescribes the experience that is incomprehensible to the child, things that the child has not gonethrough (old age, death, weariness of everyday life...). A. Givargozov, M. Yasnov, M. Boroditskayause this model in different ways. Nostalgic motifs are common for them. Regrets for the lost time areunusual for children's literature as the child accumulates experience without its interpretation.In modern children's poetry direct contact between the author and the reader is broken, andwriters cease to adapt a tragic emotion to child's perception. As a result, children's poetry solvescomplex tasks of overcoming the melancholy for the passed youth, settling family conflicts and deathanxiety.

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