“Anatomical atlas” of the city: the mortal code in the novel “Happy Moscow” by Andrei Platonov

The paper examines the significance of the moral code in shaping the urban image in the novel “Happy Moscow.” The research strategy integrates structural-semiotic analysis of mortal motifs with a historical-genetic approach. The theme of creating a “new human” and “new world” within the framework of Soviet healthcare in the 1930s acquires significance through its physiological aspect. It is projected onto the description of the city. The novel portrays the mythologem of a “city-woman” in two different ways, connected to the imagery of the main character and a girl undergoing anatomical examination. In the last chapters, the anthropomorphic image of a vivacious and balanced city transforms into its dissected corpse. The description of loci employs a set of recurrent motifs from two scenes of the novel. These are a post-mortem of a woman and a surgical operation for removing a ball-shaped blister full of purulence out of a boy’s head. The loci of the city are metaphorically connected to the various parts of the human body, forming an integral component of the expanded metaphor referred to as “a handbook of anatomical charts of the city.” The article’s rationale adheres to a step-by-step examination of several locations, such as a restaurant during the night, a metro system shaft, zhakt premises, Dominikovsky Lane, and the Krestovsky market. The visual representation of Moscow prioritizes mortal code over the physical, culinary, and provincial codes found in the text, resulting in the transformation of signs and their meanings.