CHILDHOOD CULTURE IN THE WORKS OF S. M. LOYTER

A review of the works on Russian children's folklore and children's literature by Sofia Mikhailovna Loiter, Doctor of Philology, Honored Scientist of the Republic of Karelia, was undertaken. In 2024, she celebrated her 90th birthday. Thanks to S. M. Loiter, Russian children's folklore in Karelia has been collected, systematized, researched and published better than in most other regions of the country. The professional path of the scientist, research topics, and main publications are considered. They are devoted to traditional and modern children's folklore, the history of collecting children's folklore in Karelia, and the poetics of children's literature. S. Loiter was the first to examine the utopian game of "dreamland" as a phenomenon of children's folklore. Her research showed that children's folklore and children's literature have a related nature and are subsystems of a single whole –– the verbal culture of childhood.