Mikhail Bulgakov

with them had an important place in the life of the medieval man (Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais)”. These over the top events won over the people’s hearts in the Renaissance and in the Middle Ages. During Carnival festivities, rules were thrown out the window and laugher was the focus point. “A boundless world of humorous forms and manifestations opposed the official and serious tone of medieval ecclesiastical and feudal culture (Mikhail Bakhtin)”. Laughter was not won so easily, effort had to be…

and Reagan on the Fall of Communism and the End of the Cold War The collapse of the Soviet empire in 1991 was a complex historical event, influenced by multiple leaders and movements. This essay will look at the influences of the Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev and the American president Ronald Reagan. The importance and influence of the two on the fall of Communism is still a debated topic. A short overview of the ideas that academics have about the duo will be given and a new perspective…

into a human (symbolic of the changes that need to be done to the Soviet system). Through reading the book and putting together the events that take place -- at the same time realizing that Bulgakov is writing from the standpoint of someone who is not an avid proponent of Communism -- we can see that Mikhail Bulgakov, like many others, believes that Communism is in fact slowly failing the Soviet Union. Moreover, through examining the changes that Dr. Preobrazhensky…

Heart of a Dog, written by Mikhail Bulgakov, was developed around the time when communist sentiments started gaining actual political traction in Russia, in the form of the Bolshevik movement, which came to power in 1917. Two major parties clashed, the one who opposed the revolution and the insurrection, often referred to as “tsarists” and the ones who support it. Throughout the novel, Bulgakov uses characters and their details to illustrate his opinions on communism. Bulgakov demonstrates his…

“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players,” a quote from Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII, that typically serves as the introductory quote for many essays concerning Shakespeare and literature in general. Alas, yes, a generic quote that often opens up generic essays and is one of the long-standing rituals of writings concerning the theatre. This is typically done in goals to connecting the grander motives of the theatre to the outside world to which we all…

Heart of a Dog, composed by Mikhail Bulgakov, is a searing feedback of the Bolsheviks and the state which they made. Bulgakov's characters in the house in Moscow are an unmistakable depiction of the general public in 1926 Russian urban communities. What happens in the house is a representation of what has happened subsequent to the unrest and what is going on in 1926 Russia. The characters speak to diverse segments of a general public which should be without classes, yet at the same time has a…

Although socialist realist literature was a continuation of the traditional realism in that it also depicted the same subjects, it was a cessation of the latter since it significantly different from the latter in terms of its form and functions. While the nineteenth century Russian realism, best represented by the works of Anton Chekhov and Lev Tolstoy, depicts life as it is and criticizes it, socialist realism depicts life as what the Bolsheviks – this point is especially important since they…

Sacrifice is recognized in terms of appeasing a higher power; however, it goes beyond religion and fits into the idea of serving a greater good, with death or killing being justified by an end goal. Both novels, Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov and Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, structure their story around the idea of sacrifice as it pushes the plot a certain way. The idea of giving to a higher idea or power is present throughout both, yet manifests in different ways.…