| Ivo Andrić | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 9, 1892 Dolac (village near Travnik), Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Bosnia and Herzegovina) |
| Died | March 13, 1975 (aged 82) Belgrade, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia (now Serbia) |
| Occupation | Novelist, short story writer |
| Nationality | Yugoslav |
| Notable award(s) | Nobel Prize in Literature (1961) |
Ivan "Ivo" Andrić (Cyrillic: Иво Андрић, pronounced [ǐʋan ǐːʋɔ ǎːndritɕ]) (October 9, 1892 – March 13, 1975) was a Yugoslav novelist,[1][2] short story writer, and the 1961 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.[3] His writings dealt mainly with life in his native Bosnia under the Ottoman Empire. His native house in Travnik has been transformed into a Museum, and his Belgrade flat on Andrićev Venac hosts the Museum of Ivo Andrić.
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Ivan Andrić was born on October 9, 1892, to a Roman Catholic family of Croatian parentage,[4] in Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then part of the Ottoman Empire, under control of Austria-Hungary. He was born as Ivan, but became known by the diminutive Ivo. When Andrić was two years old, his father Antun died. Because his mother Katarina (née Pejić) was too poor to support him, he was raised by his mother's family in the town of Višegrad on the river Drina in eastern Bosnia, where he saw the 16th-century Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge, later made famous in his novel The Bridge on the Drina (Na Drini ćuprija).[5]
Andrić attended the Jesuit gymnasium in Travnik, followed by Sarajevo's gymnasium and later he studied philosophy at the Universities of Zagreb (1912 and 1918), Vienna (1913), Kraków (1914), and Graz (PhD, 1924).[6] Because of his political activities, Andrić was imprisoned by the Austrian government during World War I (first in Maribor and later in the Dobojdetention camp) alongside other pro-Yugoslav civilians.
Andric started his literary career as a poet. In 1914 he was one of the contributors to Hrvatska mlada lirika (Young Croatian Lyrics).[7]
Under the newly-formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later 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. During his diplomatic service, he was working in embassy at Holy See (1920), consulates in Bucharest, Trieste and Graz (1924), consulates in Paris and Marseilles (1927), and embassy in Madrid (1928). In 1939 he was appointed ambassador in Germany. He was also a delegate of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia at the 19th, 21st, 23rd and 24th sessions of the League of Nations in Geneva in period 1930–1934.[8] Andrić 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 spent most of his time in his home in Belgrade and held a number of ceremonial posts in the new Communist government of Yugoslavia, and was also a member of the Parliament 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 of the prize money for the improvement of libraries in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.[9]
Following the death of his wife, Milica Babić-Andrić, in 1968, he began reducing his public activities. In 1969 he was elected an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.[10] As time went by, he became increasingly ill and eventually died on March 13, 1975, in Belgrade, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia.
He was buried in the Belgrade New Cemetery, in the Alley of Distinguished Citizens.[11]
The material for his works was mainly drawn from the history, folklore, and culture of his native Bosnia.
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 the"Bosnian trilogy" as they were released simultaneously and had been written in the same period. However, they are connected only thematically—they are indeed three completely different works.
Some of his other popular works include:
His manuscripts and literary legacy is in custody of the foundation he founded (Fondacija Ive Andrića) and Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts,[19]
Some claim that the works of Ivo Andrić, particularly his thesis The Development of Spiritual Life in Bosnia under the Influence of Turkish Rule have resurfaced as a source of anti-Muslim prejudice in Serbian cultural discourse.[20]
Because of Andrić's unique circumstances (born in Bosnia to Croat parents, later lived and worked in Serbia) he is claimed as part of Croatian literature,[3][4] Serbian literature,[21][22][23][24] and Bosnian literature.[25] Throughout his life, he worked in all three countries and contributed material to their various publications. As far as standard language is considered, he wrote in Serbo-Croatian, which was officially considered one language in Yugoslavia; he had been a believer in Yugoslav unity and Pan-slavism. However, it must be mentioned that Serbo-Croatian used to have two different subtypes – the Eastern standardization (spread in Montenegro, Serbia and partly in Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Western standardization that is common in Croatia and partly in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although Andrić mostly used Serbian form of Serbo-Croatian (ekavian accent of Shtokavian dialect, commonly spoken in Serbia), his early works were written in Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin form (ijekavian accent of Shtokavian dialect, commonly spoken in Bosnia).[25]
There was also a more specific, and more fundamental, divide—that between ekavian and ijekavian standards of then-Serbo-Croat – Andrić wrote in the ijekavian form (standard in both Western standard Croatia, middle-of-the-road standard Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Eastern standard Montenegro) only in his youth. As a mature writer he wrote and published in ekavian (the official standard only in Serbia), even when depicting characters who live in Bosnia and who are quoted as speaking ijekavian accent in the dialogues, that stand out in otherwise ekavian text.
As far as first issue is considered, Andrić never used the translated equivalents of foreign words, as it used to be common in Eastern standard.
Bosnians celebrate Andrić as a native son, as he was born and raised in Bosnia and set most of his stories in his native land. His doctoral thesis was on the cultural history of Bosnia under Turkish rule titled The Development of Spiritual Life in Bosnia under the Influence of Turkish Rule, an example of one of his many writings dealing with Bosnia.
Croatians point to his Croat heritage—both of his parents were Roman Catholic Croats in Bosnia. He declared himself a Croat while studying in Kraków in 1914, and had his work published in various Croatian publications. Andrić wrote in the Croatian language's ijekavian accent until the formation of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and his move to Belgrade, where he began writing in Serbian and embraced the Yugoslav cause.
Serbian sources claim him as a Serbian writer, saying that he mainly wrote in ekavian standard that exists only in the Serbian language. He declared himself as a Serb when he got married Serbian Milica Babić at the age of 67 in 1958.[26] He also became a member of the Serbian Academy of Science and Arts.
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