BAD WORDS ARE NOT ALLOWED! : LANGUAGE AND TRANSFORMATION IN MIKHAIL BULGAKOV'S HEART OF A DOG

Abstract

In Mikhail Bulgakov's Heart of a Dog (Co6aibe cepOqe [1925])1 Professor Preobrazhensky inserts part of the brain of Klim, an alcoholic and criminal, into the brain of a stray dog.2 The professor claims to be concerned about the question of eugenics, "about the improvement of human nature [o6 y iy'i IIIueHHH IeJIOBelecKoH npHpOAbII],"3 but his experiment improves neither human nor canine nature. Instead, the dog's character is gradually replaced by that of the organ donor. In the dog's humanized body, Klim is the same crim inal and alcoholic; he is given only two things that he lacked before: legal access to the professor's apartnent and the ability to speak his mind within its walls. To the dismay of everyone, the words the creature utters reflect an inter est only in power and self-gratification. The bourgeois Professor Preobrazhen sky and his Communist nemesis Comrade Shvonder begin separate campaigns to transform the dog-man into what each believes a fully-formed human being should be. The professor tries to civilize the creature with rigid rules, etiquette, and high culture. Comrade Shvonder tries to transform him with a new name,