Ivo Andrić

First short paper due

Ivo Andrić (1892–1975), Yugoslavia.

Ivo Andrić was born in Travnik, Bosnia, in a Croatian family (his first name “Ivo” is a diminutive form of “Ivan”), he spent much of his childhood in Višegrad (on the river Drina) and went on to study literature and history in Zagreb, Vienna, Kraków and Graz. Thus he began his intellectual life in the Austro-Hungarian sphere of influence. His first publications were also in Zagreb. After the First World War he entered the Yugoslav diplomatic service and began to self-identify as a Serb. He was the Yugoslav ambassador in Berlin when Germany attacked Yugoslavia. He spent the war in Belgrade, writing; the three novels he published in quick succession after the war established his reputation as one of the foremost Yugoslav authors, and this status was cemented when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961.

The Bridge on the Drina (Na Drini ćuprija), written during World War II, was published in 1945. It was the first of Andrić’s great novels and many still consider it his best. The English translation by Lovett Edwards was first published in 1959.

Course book: The Bridge on the Drina, translated by Lovett F. Edwards.

Questions for reading:

• How much do you know about the region, history and culture that Andrić is describing? How much is this a learning experience for you, as well as one of understanding? What communities or cultures in the novel could you identify with, and why? If you were reading this book for sociological or historical information, what would you do to correct for any bias in the presentation of characters or cultures? How much is Andrić capable of fooling you?
• What role does ethnic/linguistic/religious belonging play in defining or placing each character in the book? How do religious figures compare to others? What stereotypes do you recognize, and which are new to you?
• Where do you see traces of Andrić’s education as a historian, or his experience as a diplomat? What other disciplines (economics, linguistics, psychology, comparative religion?) weave into the book’s preoccupations?
• How does the nature of the characters change over time, and how does/do their community/ies evolve?
• Which of Andrić’s questions about economic and cultural development resonate with other things you have read?
• What is the relationship of History to Story, or what may you conclude from Andrić’s discussions of history?
• How does the narrator handle the spoken word? where does he relate conversations exactly, where does he let you know that he’s re-creating a conversation or incident, and when does he report it in the third person, in his words rather than those of the characters?
• How does it change the shape of a novel to select a bridge as its main character, rather than a person, or a romantic relationship, or other more common choices? What is the role of love in the novel? Does it evolve over time? Where and how does Andrić’s depiction of love differ from what’s current in our own society or era?
• What is the role of belonging in the novel, and how do the characters' senses of who they are shape their views of others and of events?

Other books by Andrić:

• Travnička hronika, 1945. The Chronicle of Travnik [Tripod title: The Bosnian Chronicle], translated by Joseph Hitrec, 1963, available in Tripod. The Days of the Consuls, translated by Celia Hawkesworth and Bogdan Rakić, 1992, available in Tripod.
• Gospođica, 1945. Miss [Tripod title: The Woman from Sarajevo], translated by Joseph Hitrec, 1965, available in Tripod.
• Prokleta avlija, 1954. The Cursed Yard [Tripod title: Devil’s Yard], translated by Kenneth Johnstone, 1962, available in Tripod.
• (a collection of stories), 1967. The Pasha’s Concubine, and Other Tales, translated by Joseph Hitrec, 1968, available in Tripod.
• Entwicklung des geistigen Lebens in Bosnien unter der Einwirkung der türkischen Herrschaft (Andric’s doctoral dissertation), 1924. The Development of Spiritual Life in Bosnia Under the Influence of Turkish Rule, translated by Želimir B. Jurišić and John F. Loud, 1990, available in Tripod.

Works about Andrić:

• Zelimir B. Juricic. The Man And The Artist: Essays On Ivo Andric, available in Tripod.
• Vanita Singh Mukerji. Ivo Andric: A Critical Biography, available in Tripod.
• Wayne S. Vucinuch. Ivo Andric Revisited: The Bridge Still Stands, available in Tripod.

There are numerous sites about Andrić on the web: let me know if you fund anything especially interesting.

http://www.ivoandric.org.yu

a few pictures, and an English version

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/andric.htm

a nice biography

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1961/andric-bio.html

if you win a Nobel Prize, it’s not just money but also presence on a nice web site! Biography, acceptance speech, etc.

http://almaz.com/nobel/literature/1961a.html

somewhat less professionally…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivo_Andri%C4%87

on Wikipedia