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Ivo Andric; (hr/sr-lat:Ivo Andric; sr-cyr:Иво Андрић) ( October 9 1892 in Dolac near Travnik ( Bosnia and Herzegovina) - March 13 1975 in Belgrade, then Yugoslavia), a Serbian- Croatian novelist, short story writer, and Nobel Prize winner from former Yugoslavia.Ivan Andric (Ivo is diminutive of Ivan) was born on October 9th, 1892 near Travnik, Bosnia (then part of Austria-HungaryAustria-Hungary also known as the Dual monarchy (or: the k. monarchy , was a dualistic state ( 1867 1918) in which the Kingdom of Hungary enjoyed self-government and representation in joint affairs (principally foreign relations and defence) with the west) to a Catholic family of BosnianThe Bosnians Bosanci sing. Bosnian, Bosanac is a person whose country is Bosnia and Herzegovina. A Bosnian can be a Bosnian Serb, Bosnian Croat or a Bosnian Bosniak, but also a member of any other nationality. The term "Bosniak" had the meaning that the t CroatsCroats ( Croatian: Hrvati are a south Slavic people mostly living in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (where they're one of the constitutive nations . There are significant Croat minorities of Vojvodina (northern Serbia) and the Austrian province of Bur. He started his education in SarajevoMiljacka river. Sarajevo is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, located at 43°52'N and 18°25'E. According to a 1991 census, its population was 429,672; currently estimated at around 400,000. The city is considered one of the most impor's GymnasiumA gymnasium is a school of secondary education in parts of Europe. The word "" (gymnasium) was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men. At some countries there is a notion of progymnasium which and continued studies at the universities in Krakow, ViennaThis article is about the city and federal state in Austria. For other places or things called Vienna, see Vienna (disambiguation). Vienna ( German: Wien [viːn]) is the capital of Austria, and also one of Austria's nine federal states Bundesland Wi, and Graz. Because of his political activities, Andric was interned by the Austrian government during World War I in the Doboj Austrian detention camp alongside with civilian Serbs and pro-Serb south Slavs.
Under the newly formed Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), Andric held a number of diplomatic posts, including that of ambassador to Germany. His ambassadorship ended in 1941, and during World War II Andric lived in Belgrade.
The post-war decade was his most productive period. Following the death of his wife in 1968, he slowly reduced his activities. As the time went by, he became increasingly ill and eventually died on March 13th, 1975.
The material for his works was mainly drawn from the history, folklore and culture of his native Bosnia. Andric wrote in Croatian and, dominantly, in Serbian, while officially supported the notion of one Serbo-Croatian language, just like many of his contemporaries, both Croat and Serb. Many of his works being translated into English, the best known are the following:
The first earned him the Nobel Prize for literature in 1961.
Some of his other popular works include:
- The Journey of Alija Derzelez (Put Alije Derzeleza, 1920)
- Bosnian Chronicle (Travnicka hronika, 1945)
- The Damned Yard (Prokleta avlija, 1954)
- Omer-Pasha Latas (Omerpaša Latas, released posthumously in 1977)
Andric belongs to those writers that are hard to classify: he was both Serbian and Croatian writer, wrote in Serbian (predominantly) and Croatian (earlier works of poetry and novellas, ca. 30 % of his opus); a believer of Yugoslav unity and quasi-racial Slavic nationalism before WWI and royal Yugoslavia's ambassador to Nazi Germany. His political career, combined with extraliterary factors, contributed to the controversy that still surrounds his work. However, a fair assessment of his work could not overlook the following facts and evaluations:
- Andric 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 melancholy consciousness contemplating the universals in human condition-not unlike Andric's chief influence Kierkegaard. His best short stories and novellas are located in his native Bosnia and Herzegovina and frequently center on collisions between three main Bosnia's nations: Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks. The latter are in his fiction almost exclusively referred to as "Turks". Although social and denominational tensions are the scene for the majority of stories, Andric's shorter fictions 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 Andric, as for other great regionalist authors like Hardy or Hawthorne, the regional irradiates the universal.
- yet, with the collapse of Yugoslavia other, until then suppressed, dubieties about Andric's work began to pop up. The commonest charge is as follows: Bosniaks, or Bosnian Muslims are in Andric's work portrayed stereotypically and in a hostile and condescending manner. Some circles of Bosnian Muslim intelligentsia had raised these accusations to ludicrous extremes, turning Andric into a Greater Serbian propagandist and pamphleteer. Suffice to say- Andric was primarily a fiction writer and such generalizations are essentially meaningless. But, they do, to a degree, invalidate Andric'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.
- other, more amusing post-Yugoslav literary event is Andric's posthumous placement: since the project of Yugoslav literature collapsed (just like Czechoslovak or Soviet "literatures"), a squabble about "who Andric belongs to ?" only began. Serbian culture and tradition have the strongest claim: Andric considered himself a Serb for the most of his adult life, the majority of his works were written in Serbian language and he was, as far as former Yugoslav area is concerned, influenced decisevely by such Serbian cultural icons like Vuk Karadžic and Petar Petrovic Njegoš, who both figured in a few Andric's essays. Croatian curricula at high schools and universities have put Andric among other writers in Croatian literature departments and programs: the arguments seem to be mostly "genetic" (Andric 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", 1914); also, great part of his best earlier work was written in Croatian language (as different from Serbian Ijekavian language of such writers like Petar Kocic or Aleksa Šantic ) and Andric didn't alter his early works in later editions; and, the role of "chorus" or moral conscience, ie. authorial voice in the major part of his work are Bosnian Croat Franciscans. Be as it may, Andric's work is now in the official curricula of Croat and Serb literature programs, and, grudgingly, in that of Bosnian Muslims. Since aesthetic sensibilities have significantly altered in past decades, a traditionalist storyteller like Andric is simultaneously politically a controversial figure and literary a somewhat marginal presence: Croats have never considered him an equal to Miroslav Krleža, while Serbs affirm aesthetic primacy of Miloš Crnjanski and Bosniaks or Bosnian Muslims of Mehmed Selimovic - a Muslim writer who, like the Croat Andric, "opted" for Serbdom during the major part of his life. Where will this literary-political pendulum finally stop, it is too early to predict.
