Ivo Andrić

Infobox Writer
name = Ivo Andrić


birthdate = birth date|1892|10|9|mf=y
birthplace = Dolac (village near Travnik), Bosnia, Ottoman Empire
deathdate = death date and age|1975|3|13|1892|10|9|mf=y
deathplace = Belgrade, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (today's Serbia)
occupation = Novelist, short story writer
awards = awd|Nobel Prize in Literature|1961

Ivo Andrić (Serbian Cyrillic: Иво Андрић; October 9, 1892 – March 13, 1975) was a novelist, short story writer, and the 1961 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature from Yugoslavia (he was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which, during his literary career, was a part of Yugoslavia). His novels "The Bridge on the Drina" and "Chronicles of Travnik / The Days of the Consuls" dealt with life in Bosnia under the Ottoman Empire.

Biography

Andrić was born on October 9, 1892, in the village of Dolac na Lašvi near Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then part of the Ottoman Empire, under control of Austria-Hungary. Originally named Ivan, he became known by the diminutive Ivo. When Andrić was two years old, his father died. Because his mother was too poor to support him, he was raised by his mother's family in the eastern Bosnian town of Višegrad on the river Drina. There he saw the Ottoman Bridge, later made famous in the novel "The Bridge on the Drina".

Andrić attended the Jesuit gymnasium in Travnik, followed by Sarajevo's gymnasium and later the universities in Zagreb, Vienna, Krakow and Graz. Because of his political activities, Andrić was imprisoned by the Austrian government during World War I (first in Maribor and later in the Doboj detention camp) alongside others pro-Yugoslavs civilians.

Under the newly-formed Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) Andrić became a civil servant, first in the Ministry of Faiths and then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he pursued a successful diplomatic career, as Deputy Foreign Minister and later Ambassador to Germany. Ivo greatly opposed the movement of Stjepan Radić, the president of the Croatian Peasant Party. His ambassadorship ended in 1941 after the German invasion of Yugoslavia. During World War II, Andrić lived quietly in Belgrade, completing the three of his most famous novels which were published in 1945, including "The Bridge on the Drina".

After the war, Andrić held a number of ceremonial posts in the new Communist government of Yugoslavia, including that of the member of the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1961, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature "for the epic force with which he has traced themes and depicted human destinies drawn from the history of his country." He donated all the prize money for the improvement of libraries in Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Following the death of his wife in 1968, he began reducing his public activities. As time went by, he became increasingly ill and eventually died on March 13, 1975, in Belgrade (then Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and today Serbia).

Works

The material for his works was mainly drawn from the history, folklore, and culture of his native Bosnia.
* "The Bridge Over the Drina"
* " [http://www.ivoandric.org.yu/html/bosnian_chronicle.html The Days of the Consuls] " (a.k.a. "Chronicles of Travnik" / "Bosnian Chronicle")
* " [http://www.ivoandric.org.yu/html/body_the_woman_from_sarajevo.html The Woman from Sarajevo] "

Those were all released in 1945 and written during World War II while Andrić was living quietly in Belgrade. They are often referred to as a "trilogy" because they were released at the same time and had been written near together in time. However, they are connected only thematically -— they are indeed three completely different works.

Some of his other popular works include:
* " [http://www.ivoandric.org.yu/html/the_journey_of_ali_djerzelez.html The Journey of Alija Đerzelez] " ("Put Alije Đerzeleza", 1920)
* " [http://www.ivoandric.org.yu/html/body_andric_s_treasury_ii.html#Elephant The Vizier's Elephant] " ("Priča o vezirovom slonu", 1948; trans. 1962)
* " [http://www.ivoandric.org.yu/html/the_damned_yard.html The Damned Yard] " ("Prokleta avlija", 1954)
* " [http://www.ivoandric.org.yu/html/omer_pasha_latas.html Omer-Pasha Latas] " ("Omerpaša Latas", released posthumously in 1977)

Classification

Andric is claimed as a hero by both Croats (he was born to a Croat familycite news | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE7D91531F93BA25757C0A965958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all | title = A Reader's Guide to the Balkans | first = Robert D. | last = Kaplan | date = 1993-04-18 | publisher = New York Times ] cite web | url = http://www.haverford.edu/relg/sells/postings/bogomils_race_andric.html | title = Of Bogomils, Race, and Ivo Andric | date = 1996-07-03 | first = Michael | last = Sells | authorlink = Michael Sells ] [ [http://www.library.yale.edu/slavic/croatia/literature/literature.html YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY:Slavic, East European & Central Asian Collections] ] ) and Serbs (he later identified himself with Serbs [ Krleža post mortem by Enes Cengic, I-III. Svjetlost, Sarajevo, 1990. 2. part, pages 171-172 - here Andrić denies to be listed as a Croat] ).

His native vernacular of Višegrad is Serbian-jekawian, other than genuin Croatian vernaculars in Bosnia and Herzegovina, that are ikawian.Fact|date=September 2008 As far as standard language is considered, he wrote in Serbo-Croatian; prior to World War I he had been a believer in Yugoslav unity and quasi-racial Slavic nationalism.Fact|date=September 2008 However, it must be mentioned that Serbo-Croatian used to have two different subtypes - the so-called Eastern standardization (spread in Montenegro, Serbia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in Macedonia), and Western standardization that was common in Croatia and Slovenia. Some characteristics of Western-standard are translating of foreign words, as well as some morphologic aspects such as the construction of future tense: "radiću" (Eastern), "radit ću" (Western). As far as first issue is considered Andrić never used the translated equivalents of foreign word, as it used to be common in West. As far as the second issue is considered, Andrić allowed Croatian publishers to change his ekawian works into jekawian (unlike the Eastern-standard, Western-standard was purely jekawian), but he strictly forbid them to change his Future-Tense-construction.

His political career, combined with extraliterary factors, contributed to the controversy that still surrounds his work. However, a fair assessment of his works should not overlook the following facts and evaluations:
* Andrić is at his best in short stories, novellas and essayist meditative prose. Brilliant aphorisms and meditations, collected in his early poetic prose ("Nemiri" / "Anxieties") and, particularly, posthumously published "Znakovi pored puta" / "Signs near the travel-road" are great examples of a melancholic consciousness contemplating the universals in human condition - not unlike Andrić's chief influence Kierkegaard. His best short stories and novellas are located in his native Bosnia and Herzegovina and frequently center on collisions between the three main Bosnian nations: Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks. Although social and denominational tensions are the scene for the majority of stories, Andrić's shorter works of fiction cannot be reduced to a sort of regional chronicle: rooted frequently in rather prosaic and pedestrian Bosnian Franciscan chronicles, they are expressions of a vision of life, because for Andrić, as for other great regionalist authors like Hardy or Hawthorne, the regional permeates the universal.
* However, with the collapse of Yugoslavia previously suppressed doubts about Andrić's work began to pop up. The commonest criticism is that Bosniaks are portrayed stereotypically in Andrić's work and in a hostile and condescending manner. Some circles of Bosnian Muslim intelligentia have raised these accusations to a significant degree, detecting positions and tendencies that could have, if displayed outside of a literary opus, earned Andrić the reputation of a Greater Serbian propagandist and pamphleteer. Since Andrić primarily wrote fiction, such accusations remain hard to substantiate. They do, however, express legitimate reservations about Andrić's stature as a writer. Shallow stereotypes of Bosnian Muslims who are depicted as borderline psychotic, oversensual "Orientals" abound even in his best fiction, which has proven to be detrimental in the re-assessment of his literary stature at the end of the 20th century.
* Another, more amusing post-Yugoslav literary event is Andrić's posthumous placement: since the project of Yugoslav literature collapsed (just like Czechoslovak or Soviet literatures), a squabble about "who Andrić belongs to?" began. Claim of Serbian culture and tradition is: The majority of his latter works were written in the Serbian language and he was, as far as the former Yugoslav area is concerned, influenced decisively by Serbian cultural icons such as Vuk Stefanović Karadžić and Petar Petrović Njegoš, who both figured in several of Andrić's essays. Accordingly to Serbian critic Borislav Mihailović-Mihiz, Andrić allowed himself to be included in Mihailović's "Anthology Of Serbian Poets Between The Two World Wars" ("Српски песници између два рата"). Claim of Croatian culture and tradition is: Croatian curricula at high schools and universities have put Andrić among other writers in Croatian literature departments and programs. Andrić was of Croatian origin and in young adulthood declared himself a Croat - for instance, he participated in a book "Hrvatska mlada lirika"/"Croatian young poetry" from 1914; also, the bulk of his best earlier work was written in the Croatian language (in contrast to Serbian writers such as Petar Kočić or Aleksa Šantić, who wrote in Ijekavian (Croatian) dialect) and Andrić didn't alter his early works in later editions; and, the role of "chorus" or moral conscience, i.e. authorial voice in the major part of his work are Bosnian Croat Franciscans.

External links

* [http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1961/andric-bio.html Andric at NobelPrize.org]
* [http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1961/press.html The Swedish Academy secretary Anders Oesterling presentation speech]
* [http://www.ivoandric.org.yu/ Ivo Andrić Foundation]
* [http://repositories.cdlib.org/uciaspubs/research/92/]

References

* Ivo Andric, The Bridge on the Drina - The University of Chicago Press, 1977 - two biographical notes written by William H. McNeill and Lovett F. Edwards

Persondata
NAME= Andrić, Ivo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Иво Андрић (Serbo-Croat Cyrillic)
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Novelist, short story writer
DATE OF BIRTH= 9 October, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH= Dolac (village near Travnik), Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH= 13 March, 1975
PLACE OF DEATH= Belgrade, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia