W orld Artist Day is commemorated on 25 th October and re- minds us of the cre- ative minds whose works have transcended borders. A spe- cial place among them belongs to Ivo An- drić, Yugoslavia’s only Nobel laureate, who was born in the Bosnian town of Travnik in October 1892. He spent his childhood in Višegrad, a stone’s throw from the famous bridge on the Drina that would later come to sym- bolise his literature and his most famous novel. His diplomatic career took him to numerous European capitals, but in his literary works he would always return to Bosnia – to its people, its history, and its complex interweaving of cultures. Grounded in reality, Andrić’s prose style nonetheless transcends the limitations of time and space. He earned his place among Europe’s most important writers with his great 1945 trilogy: The Bridge on the Drina, The Days of the Consuls (Bos- nian Chronicle) and The Woman from Sa- rajevo. That status was further solidified a decade later, with the publishing of The Damned Yard. The characters included in his works - from Ottoman viziers to or- dinary people – represent universal im- ages of people confronted by fate, fear and hope. Andrić received the 1961 Nobel Prize for Literature for his novel The Bridge on the Drina. The award committee empha- sised in particular his “epic strength” and ability to present the history of an ar- ea through the lives of individuals living there. His works have to date been trans- lated into more than 40 languages and read worldwide. Andrić died in Belgrade on 13 th March 1975, though his works live on. His house in Travnik and memorial home in Belgrade preserve the memory of this writer, while his books remain living bridges connecting peoples and cultures.
Svoj prvi roman „Na Drini ćuprija“ Andrić piše u okupiranom Beogradu, u relativnoj izolaciji nakon povlačenja iz diplomatske službe / Andrić wrote his first novel, The Bridge on the Drina, in occupied Belgrade, in relative isolation after withdrawing from the diplomatic service
Art » Umetnost | 83
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