{"id":991,"date":"2020-04-17T04:24:50","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T04:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/?p=991"},"modified":"2020-04-17T06:29:24","modified_gmt":"2020-04-17T06:29:24","slug":"the-search-resumes-in-bugalkovs-heart-of-a-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/zflood\/the-search-resumes-in-bugalkovs-heart-of-a-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"The Search Resumes in Bugalkov’s Heart of a Dog"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is an interesting thematic division within Bugalkov’s\u00a0Heart of a Dog<\/em>. On the one hand, Sharikov functions as a critique of the values embraced by 1920’s Soviet Russia: disregard for manners and other basic norms, appreciation of the circus before theatre, participation of contemptible people in official capacities, betrayal of neighbors to the secret police, and hypocritical disregard toward alcoholism and sexual assault. On the other hand, the narrative challenges the regressive values of Philip Philippovich Preobrazhensky. His entire motivation for creating Sharikov is eugenics (104), centered on a belief in the linear evolution of life. Only through such a view could transplanting a human pituitary gland to a dog produce a superior being. Yet rather than perfecting Sharik, the operation returns a being far more sinister than Sharik ever was, one mainly guided by the wicked impulses of the vagrant who supplied Sharikov’s brain. For Preobrazhensky, the experience shows how his effort was less successful at “improving humanity” than chance alone. Although the eugenics content is retroactively more reminiscent of fascism, the belief in inevitable societal progression is central to Marxism. As such, the refutation of\u00a0Preobrazhensky’s beliefs ironically serves to challenge the system so despised by the Professor. Still, the rejection of natural \u00a0hierarchies of humans or animals does correspond to communist ideals, showcasing perhaps one fault of bourgeois thought.<\/p>\n

With this critique considered, it perplexed me how the book concludes with Preobrazhensky resuming his work dissecting brains and searching for a means of achieving “rejuvenation” (123). I now see a couple possible meanings. First of all, the sequence might refer back to\u00a0Preobrazhensky’s stubbornness and refusal to accept even benign changes in prevailing thought. After all, this is a man who still wears a medieval French mustache style (6). The sequence might also be understood as recalling the disturbing manner in which Sharik was made a human. Such an ending would reiterate the tragic aspect of the narrative: a seriously wounded dog gives its trust to a promising benefactor, only to be subject to a horrific experiment that goes against its founders core ambitions. Stated as such, a clear parallel between Sharik and Russia during the early 20th century emerges. I do not believe one aspect of the ending ought to be emphasized over the other; taken together, they cover both key themes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is an interesting thematic division within Bugalkov’s\u00a0Heart of a Dog. On the one hand, Sharikov functions as a critique of the values embraced by 1920’s Soviet Russia: disregard for manners and other basic norms, appreciation of the circus before theatre, participation of contemptible people in official capacities, betrayal of neighbors to the secret police, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unit-10-building-the-ussr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1021"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}