Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.48188/so.4.19
Franciscans in the Works of Nobel Laureate Ivo Andrić
Iko Skoko
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Mostar, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Josip Šimić
; Pressum, University of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
*
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
Aim: Ivo Andrić (1892–1975) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961. He was born and lived in Bosnia- Herzegovina, and forged particularly deep connections with the Franciscans, addressed by the people of Bosnia as “uncles”. This article presents all mentions of Franciscans in Andrić’s publications and his characterization of them.
Methods: We studied all available literary works of Ivo Andrić.
Results: Andrić was born in small town of Travnik in today’s Bosnia-Herzegovina, a Catholic surrounding in which Franciscan monks provided the religious needs of the parish. Therefore, Andrić developed friendships with Franciscans and cherished it all until his life. His first close Franciscan friend, Fra Alojzije Perčinlić, was the Pastor of Ovčarevo; the last Franciscan friend he made was Fra Ljubo Hrgić, a writer from Zenica. Andrić regularly referred to the Franciscans in his works, from his first book – Ex ponto – published in 1918, to his Omer Pasha Latas, a novel published posthumously in 1976. He used fifteen Franciscan works and monastic annals as major sources for his doctoral dissertation entitled The Development of Spiritual Life in Bosnia under the Influence of Turkish Rule, which he defended in 1924 at the University of Graz. The dissertation described how the Franciscans lived, the role they played in people’s life, and the work they did in Bosnia and Herzegovina over a period of six hundred years. In gb his dissertation he named more than thirty Franciscans, and a total of 44 in his works.
Conclusion: Andrić was well acquainted with the lives, virtues, accomplishments, and human flaws of the Bosnian Franciscans. Few writers presented the Franciscans as favorably as Ivo Andrić did in his doctoral dissertation and other works. Human flaws that he found in “uncles” were mere “a drop in the ocean” of his favorable accounts about the order.
Keywords
Ivo Andrić; Nobel Prize; Franciscans; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Ottoman conquests; catholic faith
Hrčak ID:
310878
URI
Publication date:
7.12.2023.
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