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Ivo Andric - BiographicalIvo Andr ic was born in the village of Dolac, near Travnik, in 1892. After spending

his youth in his native Bosnia, which was at the tim e part of t he Austro-

Hungarian Empire, he studied philosophy at the Universities of Zagreb, Vienna,

and Cracow. His studies were interrupted by the outbreak of t he First Wor ld War,

at the beginning of which he was jailed for his anti-Austr ian activities. After

receiving a doctorate in letters from the University of Graz in 1923, he entered

the Yugoslav diplomat ic service. The last diplom atic post he held was that of

Yugoslav minister in Berlin. When Germany invaded Yugoslavia in 1941, Andric

returned to Belgrade and lived there in seclusion throughout the Second World

War. He has continued to reside in the Yugoslav capital.

Andric star ted his literary career as a poet. In 1914 he was one of the

contributors to Hrvatska m lada lirika (Young Croatian Lyrics). At t he end of the war he published two books

of lyrical prose - one of them ent itled Nemiri(Anxieties), 1919 - which, wr itten in the form of a diary, reflect

Andric's experiences of the war and h is impr isonment . There followed a long period in wh ich Andric

concentrated on the wr iting of short stories. His first novella, Put Alije Djerzeleza (The Trip of Alija Djerzelez),

published in 1920, early manifests a dominant t rait of his creative process. Andric takes his material from

the life of Bosnia, but through this local material he presents universal hum an problem s. In the period

between the two world wars Andric published three books of short stories under the same title, Pripovetke

(Stor ies), 1924, 1931, 1936.

During the Second World War, in the leisure imposed on him by the circumstances, Andr ic wrote his three

large works, all of which were published in 1945: Na Drini cuprija (The Bridge on the Drina), Travnicka

hronika (Bosnian Story), and Gospodjica (The Woman from Sarajevo).

The first two of these works - both of t hem chronicles rather t han novels in the str ict sense - deal, like most

of Andr ic's work, with Bosnia and her history. The author describes the life of t his region in which East and

West have for centur ies clashed with their in terests and influences, a region whose population is composed

of dif ferent nationalities and religions. Andric is at his best when he lim its him self to his native Bosnia and

her people.

In Gospodjica and Nove pripovetke (New Stor ies), 1948, Andr ic presented present-day people and problem s.

He dealt with the psychology of the wealthy, with the war and postwar periods, and with the formation of a

new society. But in Prokleta avilija (Devil's Yard), 1954, Andric retu rned to his favor ite m ilieu and described

the experiences of a Bosnian Franciscan, Fra Peter, who is put in an Istanbul jail, being wrongly accused of

plot ting against Ottom an rule. In 1960 Andric published another collection of stories, Lica (Faces). He has

also writ ten several essays, prominent am ong which is Zapisi o Goj i, (Notes on Goya), 1961.

From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969

This autobiography/biography was written at the t ime of t he award and fir st published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was

later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite t his document, always state the source as shown above.

Ivo Andric d ied on March 13, 1975.

Andric - Biographical http://www.nobelpr ize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1961/andri...

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7/28/2019 Ivo Andric - Biographical

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Ivo Andric d ied on March 13, 1975.

Copyright The Nobel Foundation 1961

Andric - Biographical http://www.nobelpr ize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1961/andri...

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