Readers are often left uncertainhow to understand the rich meanings of Mikhail Bulgakov's comic and beautifulnovel The Master and Margarita. To what extent is it political? Or religious? And ...howshould we interpret the Satanic Woland? ThisCompanion guides the readers through the work's thematic, structural andlinguistic complexities.
Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita , set
in Stalin's Moscow, is an intriguing work with a complex structure,
wonderful comic episodes and moments of great beauty. Readers are
often ...left tantalized but uncertain how to understand its rich
meanings. To what extent is it political? Or religious? And how
should we interpret the Satanic Woland? This reader's companion
offers readers a biographical introduction, and analyses of the
structure and the main themes of the novel. More curious readers
will also enjoy the accounts of the novel's writing and publication
history, alongside analyses of the work's astonishing linguistic
complexity and a review of available English translations.
Ten pages, selected from a total of 127, of the last manuscript of Master i Margarita, written by Bulgakov in the last four years of his life, have been analysed in order to harvest and identify any ...trace proteome left on the margin by the novelist, in the hope of finding biomarkers of his fatal nephrotic syndrome. To that aim, we prepared a special ethyl-vinyl acetate film as binder of ground AG 501 Bio-Rad mix-bed strong cation/strong anion exchange resins for adsorbing any protein left on the margins of the pages via saliva and/or sweat. After eluting, digesting and interrogating the peptides by LC-MS/MS, we could identify three proteins, periostin, N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase and nephrin, reported as biomarkers of renal pathologies. Additionally a further 29 unique gene products, of saliva and skin origin, have been identified, together with two bacterial proteins. The novel method here reported could be safely applied to any other research on manuscripts stored in public libraries and repositories of the World Cultural Heritage.
The present manuscript aims at finding proteomics traces in a 75-year old manuscript in order to confirm the health state of the author. In the case of Bulgakov it was known that he died of renal disease, possibly leaving traces and/or biomarkers of this pathology on the margins of the pages analysed. Three proteins, stated to be biomarkers of nephrotic syndrome, could be identified. In order not to contaminate the manuscript pages with resin particles, we have devised a novel harvesting film, by which strong cation and anion exchangers are embedded in ethyl-vinyl acetate foils. It is felt that this technology could be safely applied to other specimens belonging to the Word Heritage.
EVA: could it become the ancestor of a new generation of capturing devices? Display omitted
•A new capturing film containing strong cation (SCX) and strong anion (SAX) exchangers is reported.•Three biomarkers of renal diseases were identified on the original manuscript.•Twenty nine additional proteins from saliva and skin were also detected.•Two bacterial proteins on the margins of the foils were identified.
The manuscript pages of the final draft of Master i Margarita, the masterpiece by Mikhail Bulgakov, written in the last four years of his life (1936–1940), have been treated with a mixture of ...chromatographic beads, namely a strong cation exchanger and a C8 resin. Potential substances captured by the beads, after harvesting them, were eluted with a mixture of isopropyl alcohol, dichloromethane and ammonium hydroxide and the eluate subjected to GC–MS analysis in order to detect the presence, if any, of drugs, due to the fact that the writer suffered intense pains caused by an inherited nephrotic syndrome. Indeed all the pages under investigation (a total of ten, taken at random among 127 foils) contained traces of morphine, from as little as 5 up to 100ng/cm2. In addition to the intact drug, we could detect one of its metabolites, namely 6-O-acetyl morphine. The significance of these findings in terms of a possible improvement of the novel and in terms of drug use (or abuse) in the modern world is discussed and evaluated.
The extraction of metabolites/proteins from the surface of the original manuscript pages of Bulgakov masterpiece Master i Margarita has permitted to monitor his health state and intake of medicaments over the last four years of his life. We have ascertained that: (1) he was assuming large doses of morphine as pain killers; (2) he was affected by a nephrotic syndrome, since we could identify three proteins known as biomarkers of this pathology. The double extraction procedure here reported could open up a novel field of investigation of (relatively) ancient manuscripts for metabolome/proteome analysis on the health status of the writer/artist.
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•Original manuscript pages of Bulgakov masterpiece analyzed via surface extraction•Extensive levels of morphine found on all manuscript pages investigated via GC–MS•Three biomarkers of renal pathologies, periostin, NAG, and nephrin were detected too.•Methods of extraction simple, highly effective and widely applicable
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In the years since the appearance of The Master and Margarita a large body of critical literature has been devoted to a search for unity, or rather a search for the key that unites the novel's three ...disparate realms, with their separate settings, casts of characters, levels of language, and characteristic narrative voices. One approach has been to search for formal unity using the novel's structural elements (narrative modes, setting, time-space coordinates). Another approach has been to search for thematic unity by tracing the moral and philosophical threads that run through the novel as well as the literary antecedents of each of the characters. Some critics have reached the conclusion that there is no unity—that the novel is in fact a faulty, fragmented piece of writing.
Provider: - Institution: - Data provided by Europeana Collections- Artykuł z: Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska. Sectio F, Nauki Filozoficzne i Humanistyczne. Vol. 23/24, s. 257-277 ; ...streszcz. pol., fr.- All metadata published by Europeana are available free of restriction under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. However, Europeana requests that you actively acknowledge and give attribution to all metadata sources including Europeana
