Ivo Andrić’s Bosnia: the Changes of Historical Development as a Subject of Artistic Interpretation

Abstract

The article focuses on the works of a Serbian writer, Nobel Prize winner, Ivo Andrić. Many of his works are dedicated to the history of his native land –Bosnia and Herzegovina. There is an original artistic concept of this region in his work. The article deals with a number of research interpretations of Ivo Andrić’s concept ofBosnia. The author refers to the controversial issue of the interpretation of the images of Bosnian Muslims in the writer’s works. The suggestion is to analyze them in terms of Andrić’s vision of history of the region. The concept of the historical past ofBosniain the writer’s novels can be considered as a system of changes and contrasts which has influenced the development of collective identity and determined certain conflicts in the history of the region. The author also refers to the work of a British scientist Arnold Toynbee as a historical and philosophical justification of the role of various changes and different interventions in an established cultural system. Ivo Andrić’s doctoral thesis is also considered in terms of assessing the impact of cultural demolition which occurred on theterritoryofBosniabecause of its conquest by the Turks.