Bulgakov's Novel the Heart of a Dog and Yaghoobi’s play: a Comparative Study on the Structural Adaptation Process
Mahdi Nasiri

Abstract
There have almost always been theories and strategies developed to explain and regulate the adaptation process as well as the methods of changing a literary text from fiction to drama. However, most of these theories are relevant to and have provided accounts for film adaptations of fictions and novels; in fact, few theories have focused on dramatic adaptation of fictions. Therefore, the present study, which directly analyses a dramatic adaptation of a novel, can be numbered among the few researches that have hitherto been done on the same subject. Indeed, the present research is a study of The Heart of the Dog, a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940), and the dramatic adaptation of the novel, by Mohammad Yaghoubi, a contemporary Persian dramatist. Actually, regardless of their conceptual similarities and differences, and without concern for the various socio-political milieu in which the two texts have been produced, the present research offers an analysis of the texts' forms and structures. Moreover, in this study, attempts have been made to answer questions which seem to be fundamental in the adaptation process: Which elements or features have this potential to change into dramatic elements or features? And which patterns can be regarded as touchstones for dramatic adaptations of fictions? Hence, this research provides the readers with a structuralist analysis of The Heart of a Dog, and the dramatic adaptation of the novel. The present study also evaluates both the pattern and the process of adaptation.

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