The Bridge on the Drina
Yugoslavia | |
Language | Serbo-Croatian |
---|---|
Genre | Historical fiction |
Publisher | Prosveta |
Publication date | March 1945 |
Pages | 318 |
The Bridge on the Drina[a] is a historical novel by the Yugoslav writer Ivo Andrić. It revolves around the Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad, which spans the Drina River and stands as a silent witness to history from its construction by the Ottomans in the mid-16th century until its partial destruction during World War I. The story spans about four centuries and covers the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian occupations of the region, with a particular emphasis on the lives, destinies, and relations of the local inhabitants, especially Serbs and Bosnian Muslims.
Andrić had been
In 1961, Andrić was awarded the
Summary
A young
Construction begins in 1566, and five years later the bridge is completed, together with a
The
In June 1914,
Writing and publication
Ivo Andrić was Yugoslavia's best known and most successful literary figure, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961.[1] He was born to Antun Andrić and Katarina Pejić near Travnik on 9 October 1892, but spent most of his childhood in the town of Višegrad.[2][3] His formative years were spent in the shadow of the town's most distinctive landmark, the Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge. As a child, Andrić played in its vicinity and heard the legends surrounding it and its patron, Mehmed-paša Sokolović.[4] Born into a Bosnian Serb family on the outskirts of the town, Sokolović had been abducted by the Ottomans as a child as part of the devşirme tax imposed on Christian subjects, taken to Istanbul and inducted into the janissary corps. Despite this, he remained in contact with his Christian family, and in 1557, convinced the Porte to grant the Serbian Orthodox Church autonomy.[5][b]
Andrić's literary career began in 1911, and prior to the outbreak of World War I, he published a number of poems, essays and reviews, and also translated the works of foreign writers.[6] In the years leading up to the war, he joined a number of South Slav student movements calling for an end to the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.[7] He was also a close friend of Princip.[8] In late July or early August 1914, Andrić was arrested by the Austro-Hungarians for his connections to Franz Ferdinand's assassins. He spent much of World War I in captivity, and was only freed in July 1917, after Emperor Charles declared a general amnesty for political prisoners.[9][10] In 1920, Andrić entered the diplomatic service of the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later renamed Yugoslavia) [11] He published a short story titled The Bridge on the Žepa, which was to serve as a prototype for the Bridge on the Drina, in 1925.[12] In 1939, he was appointed as Yugoslavia's ambassador to Germany, which went on to spearhead an invasion of his country in April 1941, within the wider context of World War II.[13][14] Andrić and his staff were arrested by the Germans following the invasion. In June 1941, he was permitted to return to Belgrade.[15] Andrić was retired from the diplomatic service and confined to a friend's apartment by the Germans, living in conditions that some biographers have likened to house arrest.[16] Over the following three years, he focused on his writing and pondered over the disintegration of Yugoslavia, which had become the scene of a brutal inter-ethnic civil war following the invasion.[17]
The Bridge on the Drina was written between July 1942 and December 1943.
Style
The novel's release coincided with the end of World War II, as well as
Like almost all of Andrić's works, the book was originally written in
The novel's first 100 pages deal with the bridge's construction and the remaining 200 revolve around the Austro-Hungarian period.[29] Andrić himself characterized The Bridge on the Drina as a chronicle rather than a novel. In the introduction to his English-language translation, Edwards also declined to classify it as a novel, for "its scope is too vast, its characters too numerous, its period of action too long." Literary scholar Annabel Patterson writes: "There is no hero or heroine to hold it together, nor even a family or dynasty. In place of these there is the bridge, whose birth we attend, whose stability we come to count on."[30] Patterson hesitates to characterize The Bridge on the Drina as a historical novel because most of the events described in it actually occurred as opposed to having been fictionalized. She notes that other scholars have classified it as a "non-fiction novel", a term she considers superfluous. "If we wish for simplicity," she writes, "we can call The Bridge on the Drina a novel to distinguish it from Andrić's collections of short stories. But if we wish for precision, The Bridge on the Drina can best be classified as a collection of short stories of peasant life held together by a bridge."[31] The book deviates from other texts that have been described as chronicles in that the narrator observes events itinerantly and retrospectively. The style of storytelling Andrić employs is often likened to a transcendent historical monologue. Literary scholar Guido Snel believes that such a stylistic interpretation neglects the novel's dialogic properties and its ability to act as a back-and-forth between the narrator and reader, drawing a connection between the past described in the novel and the reader's present. This has caused Serb scholars to uphold Andrić's narrative authority, Snel writes, and Muslim scholars to challenge and reject it.[27]
Themes and motifs
The Bridge on the Drina remains Andrić's most famous novel and has received the most scholarly attention of all his works. Most scholars interpret the eponymous bridge as a
Michael Sells, a professor of Islamic history and literature, posits that one of the novel's main themes is race betrayal. In Andrić's view, Sells asserts, Slavs are "racially Christian", and the conversion of some to Islam is perceived as a great evil epitomized by the practice of devşirme.[34] The legend of Christian infants being buried alive within a bridge stems from The Building of Skadar, a Serbian epic poem dating back to the Middle Ages.[35] Sells interprets the legend as an allegory for the entrapment of Slav converts to Islam within the structures of an alien religion.[34] He describes Andrić's depiction of Muslim characters as mono-dimensional. Muslim Slavs depicted in the novel, he asserts, fall under three types: "the evil Turk", "the good Turk" and the janissary, who secretly mourns being severed from his Christian brethren. These character depictions, Sells argues, betray Andrić's stereotypical notions of Islam.[36] Ani Kokobobo, a professor of Slavic studies, believes violence is a theme that offers conceptual cohesion to the novel's otherwise fragmented narrative.[37] The most notable depiction of it is the impalement of Radisav of Unište, who attempts to sabotage the construction of the bridge. Several scholars interpret Radisav's impalement as an allegory for the state of Bosnia itself—subjected, vulnerable and fragmented between Christianity and Islam.[38]
The historian Tomislav Dulić interprets the destruction of the bridge at the novel's conclusion as having several symbolic meanings. On the one hand, it marks the end of traditional Ottoman life in the town and signals the unstoppable oncome of modernity, while on the other, it foreshadows the death and destruction that await Bosnia and Herzegovina in the future. Dulić describes the ending as "deeply pessimistic", and attributes Andrić's pessimism to the events of World War II.[39]
Reception and legacy
The three novels Andrić published in 1945 were an immediate success.[23] The Bridge on the Drina was instantly recognized as a classic by the Yugoslav literary establishment.[17] The novel played an important role in shaping Andrić's Tito-era reputation as the very embodiment of Yugoslav literature, a "living equivalent to Njegoš".[40] From its publication in 1945 until the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991–92, the novel was required reading in Yugoslav secondary schools.[41]
The novel's literary and historical significance was instrumental in persuading the Swedish Academy to award Andrić the Nobel Prize.[42] In his introduction to Andrić's acceptance speech, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences member Göran Liljestrand took note of the symbolic significance of the bridge and described Andrić as a unifying force. "Just as the bridge on the Drina brought East and West together," Liljestrand said, "so your work has acted as a link, combining the culture of your country with other parts of the planet."[43] Following Andrić's death in 1975, Slovene novelist Ivan Potrč wrote an obituary praising the Nobel Laureate. "Andrić did not merely write The Bridge on the Drina," Potrč remarked. "He built, is building and will continue to build bridges between our peoples and nationalities."[44]
After being awarded the Nobel Prize, Andrić donated the original manuscript to the city of
Patterson describes The Bridge on the Drina as a seminal work whose themes and motifs—forced labour, invasion, annexation and displacement—would appear frequently in subsequent 20th-century fiction.
References
Endnotes
- )
- ^ The Church's leader at the time, Patriarch Makarije, is thought to have been Sokolović's brother or nephew. The following three Patriarchs were also relatives of Sokolović.[5]
- ^ Biographer Radovan Popović writes that the novel was finished in late 1944.[19]
- ^ Serbo-Croatian can be written in either the Latin or Cyrillic script.[26]
- ^ The name Bosniak was adopted by a congress of leading Bosnian Muslim intellectuals in September 1993. Prior to this, Bosniaks were referred to as Bosnian Muslims.[46]
Citations
- ^ a b Norris 1999, p. 62.
- ^ Hawkesworth 1984, p. 11.
- ^ Vucinich 1995, p. 1.
- ^ Hawkesworth 1984, p. 13.
- ^ a b Banac 1984, p. 64.
- ^ Vucinich 1995, p. 28.
- ^ Norris 1999, p. 59.
- ^ Dedijer 1966, p. 194.
- ^ Hawkesworth 1984, pp. 15–17.
- ^ Vucinich 1995, pp. 29–30.
- ^ a b Norris 1999, p. 60.
- ^ Hawkesworth 1984, p. 88.
- ^ Hawkesworth 1984, pp. 25–26.
- ^ a b Vucinich 1995, p. 34.
- ^ Hawkesworth 1984, p. 27.
- ^ Juričić 1986, p. 55.
- ^ a b Wachtel 1998, p. 156.
- ^ a b Hawkesworth 1984, p. 124.
- ^ a b Popović 1989, p. 54.
- ^ a b Hawkesworth 1984, p. 28.
- ^ Hawkesworth 1984, pp. 29–30.
- ^ Ramadanović 2000, p. 55.
- ^ a b c Norris 1999, p. 61.
- ^ Wachtel 1998, pp. 156–157.
- ^ Wachtel 1998, p. 180.
- ^ Hawkesworth 1984, Note on the Pronunciation of Serbo-Croatian names.
- ^ a b c d Snel 2004, p. 211.
- ^ Alexander 2006, p. 407.
- ^ Snel 2004, p. 209.
- ^ Patterson 2014, p. 45.
- ^ Patterson 2014, p. 46.
- ^ Wachtel 1998, p. 161.
- ^ Aleksić 2013, p. 57.
- ^ a b Sells 1998, pp. 45–50.
- ^ Aleksić 2013, pp. 55–60.
- ^ Sells 1998, p. 179, note 30.
- ^ Kokobobo 2007, p. 69.
- ^ Kokobobo 2007, pp. 71–73.
- ^ Dulić 2005, p. 176.
- ^ Wachtel 1998, p. 157.
- ^ Nikolić 2016, p. 177.
- ^ Patterson 2014, p. 44.
- ^ Wachtel 2008, p. 119.
- ^ Wachtel 1998, p. 275, note 36.
- ^ Čustović 5 September 2021.
- ^ Velikonja 2003, p. 254.
- ^ Silber 20 September 1994.
- ^ Nikolić 2016, p. 171.
- ^ Stokes 1993, p. 251.
- ^ Hayden 2012, p. 353.
- ^ Shafak 3 October 2018.
- ^ Patterson 2014, p. 52.
- ^ Binder 2013, p. 34.
- ^ Walasek 2013, p. 9.
- ^ UNESCO 28 June 2007.
- ^ a b Binder 2013, p. 44.
- ^ Aspden 27 June 2014.
- ^ Catholic News Agency 31 March 2019.
Sources
- Aleksić, Tatjana (2013). The Sacrificed Body: Balkan Community Building and the Fear of Freedom. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 978-0-8229-7913-5.
- Alexander, Ronelle (2006). Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian: A Grammar with Sociolinguistic Commentary. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-21193-6.
- Amelan, Roni (28 June 2007). "Bosnian Bridge among five new sites inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List this evening". UNESCO.
- Aspden, Peter (27 June 2014). "The town that Emir Kusturica built". Financial Times.
- ISBN 978-0-8014-9493-2.
- ISBN 978-615-5225-74-1.
- Čustović, Merima (5 September 2021). "Andrić je tražio da se njegov rukopis "Na Drini ćuprija" čuva u Sarajevu". Faktor.ba (in Bosnian). Retrieved 17 December 2021.
- OCLC 400010.
- Dulić, Tomislav (2005). Utopias of Nation: Local Mass Killing in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala University Press. ISBN 978-91-554-6302-1.
- "Full text of Pope Francis' in-flight press conference from Rabat". Catholic News Agency. 31 March 2019.
- Hawkesworth, Celia (1984). Ivo Andrić: Bridge Between East and West. London, England: Athlone Press. ISBN 978-1-84714-089-0.
- Hayden, Robert (2012). From Yugoslavia to the Western Balkans: Studies of a European Disunion, 1991–2011. Leiden, Netherlands: BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-24191-6.
- Juričić, Želimir B. (1986). The Man and the Artist: Essays on Ivo Andrić. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America. ISBN 978-0-8191-4907-7.
- Kokobobo, Ani (2007). "To Grieve or not to Grieve? The Unsteady Representation of Violence in Ivo Andrić's The Bridge on the Drina" (PDF). Journal of the North American Society for Serbian Studies. 21 (1). Bloomington, Indiana: Slavica Publishers: 69–86. ISSN 0742-3330. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2016-03-04.
- Nikolić, Dragan (2016). "Echo of Silence: Memory, Politics and Heritage in Višegrad". In Törnquist-Plewa, Barbara (ed.). Whose Memory? Which Future?: Remembering Ethnic Cleansing and Lost Cultural Diversity in Eastern, Central and Southeastern Europe. New York City: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-78533-123-7.
- Norris, David A. (1999). In the Wake of the Balkan Myth: Questions of Identity and Modernity. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-230-28653-5.
- Patterson, Annabel (2014). The International Novel. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-21040-8.
- Popović, Radovan (1989). Ivo Andrić: A Writer's Life. Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Ivo Andrić Endowment. OCLC 22400098.
- Ramadanović, Petar (2000). "Ivo Andrić 1892–1975: Bosnian Novelist and Short-Story Writer". In Classe, Olive (ed.). Encyclopedia of Literary Translation Into English: A-L. Vol. 1. London, England: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-884964-36-7.
- ISBN 978-0-520-92209-9.
- Shafak, Elif (3 October 2018). "Why the novel matters in the age of anger". New Statesman.
- Silber, Laura (20 September 1994). "A Bridge of Disunity". Los Angeles Times.
- Snel, Guido (2004). "The Footsteps of Gavrilo Princip". In Cornis-Pope, Marcel; Neubauer, John (eds.). History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe: Junctures and Disjunctures in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Vol. 1. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 978-90-272-3452-0.
- Stokes, Gale (1993). The Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-987919-9.
- Velikonja, Mitja (2003). Religious Separation and Political Intolerance in Bosnia-Herzegovina. College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-1-58544-226-3.
- ISBN 978-0-87725-192-7.
- Wachtel, Andrew Baruch (1998). Making a Nation, Breaking a Nation: Literature and Cultural Politics in Yugoslavia. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-3181-2.
- Wachtel, Andrew Baruch (2008). The Balkans in World History. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-988273-1.
- Walasek, Helen (2013). "Introduction". In Walasek, Helen (ed.). Bosnia and the Destruction of Cultural Heritage. London, England: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4094-3704-8.
External links
- The Bridge on the Drina full text, translated by Lovett F. Edwards (in English)
- Book profile at the Ivo Andrić Foundation (in English)