Original scientific paper
EXISTENTIALS IN ANDRIĆ’S PROKLETA AVLIJA
Ivica Musić
orcid.org/0000-0002-8434-3742
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Mostar
Abstract
Prokleta avlija as a novel is not only an outstanding literary achievement. It is
also a philosophic tale with many interwoven existential themes. This does not
come as a surprise because Andrić was well versed in the philosophy of his time,
especially its existential streamings, which he abundantly used to portrait the
psychological aspects of his characters and also for reflections about life itself. In
the distorted reality of the 20th century, seen as a mental wasteland, the idea of
world as infernal and catastrophic was almost self evident. Andrić skilfully uses
this tumult as a background for his novel, placing the action in an infamous Turkish
prison. This prison serves well as a paradigm of total dehumanization, even
though it is placed in the 20th century, a time of technical advance and the peak of
civilization. Existential philosophers as Jaspers, Sartre or Heidegger deal with the
same phenomenons, so there exist some correlates between Andrić and these philosophers.
So we find motifs as thrownness in the world, paradox, abandonment,
vulnerability, struggle, guilt, resignation, anxiety, despair, death, nothingness.
Here we are dealing with the so called existentials, in other words fundamental
aspects of the existence of a man, which assume a pivotal role in this age of all –
inclusive calamity.
Keywords
subsistence; existence; communication; thrownness in the world; guilt; nausea; death; transcendence
Hrčak ID:
229385
URI
Publication date:
10.7.2012.
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