Ambiguità umoristica e mostruosità morale in "Cuore di cane" di Michail Bulgakov

"HUMOROUS AMBIGUITY AND MORAL MONSTROSITY IN “THE HEART OF A DOG” BY MICHAIL BULGAKOV Drawing inspiration from the romantic theme of the artificial man, the story of the stray dog Šarik, transformed into a human being thanks to a transplant of organs, provides Bulgakov with the opportunity to draw a satirical picture of the Soviet period of NEP. It becomes immediately clear in the story that the metamorphosis of the dog has given incomplete hybrid results: by constantly calling into discussion the human hypostasis of the dog that has recently received a transplant, a mechanism is triggered that fuels the humorous aspects of the story and alludes to the monstrosity, not only physical but particularly moral, of the new creature. In this paper attention is drawn to some linguistic-expressive peculiarities of Bulgakov’s masterpiece, also in order to find possible solutions to translation queries that the tale poses (see the translation into Italian of the incipit to Chapter VI which comes immediately before the paper).