Talk:Ivo Andrić

Semi-protected edit request on 27 March 2023
Ivo Andic nationality is bosnian 5.43.90.158 (talk) 19:40, 27 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. M.Bitton (talk) 20:13, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Please, fix false statement
In the current version, it was stated

Widowed and penniless, Andrić's mother took him to Višegrad and placed him in the care of her sister-in-law Ana and brother-in-law Ivan Matković, a police officer

But, according to very Andric, "sister-in-law Ana" is actually "sister Ana": from Ivo Andric, Pisac govori svojim delom, Beogradski graficki zavod, Beograd 1994, page 169: "I njega i mene su rodjaci gajili i skolovali - njega baba po ocu a mene tetka po majci." (engl. Both he and I were raised and educated by our relatives - he by his paternal grandmother and me by my maternal aunt). Further on page 275: "Posle kratkog zadrzavanja u Travniku, prvu toplu supu pojeo sam u Visegradu kod tetke Ane" (engl. After a short stay in Travnik, I ate my first hot soup in Visegrad at aunt Ana's (home)) 93.86.31.237 (talk) 10:38, 24 May 2024 (UTC)


 * After more detailed reading of the same book, I found more facts destroying the claims "placed him in the care of her sister-in-law" and "both his parents were Croats". On the book page 62, Andric said, "Imao sam dve godine kada sam se sa roditeljima doselio u Visegrad" and, on page 92, "Ja sam mislio na moje detinjstvo u Visegradu, na moju roditeljsku kucu ..." In short, Andric said that he moved from Sarajevo to Visegrad together with his parents where he spent his childhood in his parents' home. Further, in the Introduction to the Andric's Bridge over Drina, translated and printed in 1959 ( Originally published in 1945, Translation © George Allen and Unwin Ltd.), and reprinted in 1977 (Chicago Univesity Press), American historian W. H. McNeil wrote, "and when the future writer was still an infant, his father died, leaving his penniless young widow to look after an only child. They went to live with her parents in Visegrad on the banks of the Drina, where the young Ivo grew up in an artisan family (his grandfather was a carpenter) playing on the bridge he was later to make so famous, and listening to tales about its origin and history which he used so skillfully to define the character of the early Ottoman presence in that remote Bosnian town. The family was Orthodox Christian, i.e., Serb;" On page 273, the same book, Andric said, "Tu sam se zblizio sa Ivom Vojnovicem; obojica smo zajedno mrli. Kovali smo planove da uzmemo Splistko kazaliste u svoje ruke. ... Vojnovic me je nezno voleo, bio je negde u ovim mojim godinama; ja sam mu mogao da budem sin, ako ne i unuk". In short, Andric mentioned his close friend Ivo Vojnovic, whose common intention was to overtake Split theatre. Ivo Vojnovic, in his letter to his brother Lujo (in 1918)  wrote, "Saljem to djelo Ex ponto које је probudilo veliu senzaciju. Pisac mladi katolicki Srbin iz Bosne, idealan mladic 26. god.” (See here, page 13) Translation: I am sending that work Ex ponto which has caused a great sensation. The writer is a young Catholic Serb from Bosnia, an ideal young man, 26 years old.
 * Bottom line: Remove "Andrić's parents were both Catholic Croats." and "Widowed and penniless, Andrić's mother..." as pointless. 93.86.35.19 (talk) 18:49, 1 June 2024 (UTC)

Point of view and facts
My comment here is triggered by the previous request to fix/remove false claims found in this biography.

From the request we learned that Andric's parents weren't Croats, Ana was his maternal aunt, other people who were his close friends identified him as a Serb, then when he was infant, his parents moved to his grandparents home in Visegrad.

The book "Ivo Andric, Pisac govori svojim delom" (engl.Ivo Andric, Writer speaks through his works) is a collection of talks Andric participated in and interviews he gave to different people (journalists, literary critics). The book editor, R. Vuckovic, wrote that Andric's point of view is: let us talk about my works not about me. He, when people wanted to learn about his private life, regularly rejected their curiosity telling them that there was no point to talk about writer, the same way as we were not talking about the ingeneer who constructed a bridge, nor about the painter who painted an icon in a church.

There were just a few close friends of him (W.H. McNeill - historian, E.F. Lovett -translator, C. Schmitt - philosopher, I. Vojnovic, M. Bogdanovic, L. Jandric - all writers), who were able to hear some details about his private life. A bad thing is that none of them is mentioned as a source of information about Andric: Lampe, Hoare, Binder stated "Andrić's parents were both Catholic Croats.", McNeill and Vojnovic denied it, Andric (in 1954), learning that in his biography,readied to be entry in Yugoslav Encyclopaedia, were mentioned his would-be Croatian origins, demanded removal the mentioned origins. Lampe wrote, "Though of Croat origin, Andrić came to identify as a Serb upon moving to Belgrade." and he is wrong again. Ivo Vojnovic, while in Zagreb and Split working with Andric in 1918, wrote. "(Andric) is a young Catholic Serb from Bosnia, an ideal young man, 26 years old". All attempts to crotatize Andric emerged after Andric's death, coming from people who never met and talked to him, and who are without credible primary sources supporing the croatization.

About his World War II period Pavlowitch claims, "Because of his Croat heritage, they had offered him the chance to settle in Zagreb, then the capital of the fascist puppet state known as the Independent State of Croatia, but he declined.[53]" Fine, but what is the Pavlowitch's primary source supporting the claim? Here we can learn that there were claims that Andric asked Croatian Ustashe (Pavelic) to be moved to Zagreb in 1941. The same way as Pavlowitch, the autor (Davor Kristić) of this article (Tamna strana nobelovca Ive Andrića) does not provide any credible source, rather statements of the Ustashe dignitaries (Marko Čović - Mile Budak secretary, Vinko Nikolić). Another claim came from unidentified memoirs saying that Pavelic consulted Krleza wheter or not enxtend invitation to Andric to move to Zagreb. No evidence is given that the invitation was made.

As to the language and the writer's literature homeland, for any uninformed foreigner, Andric was a Yugoslav writer writing in serbo-croatian. In 1942, when some Serbian publisher asked Andric to publish some of his stories, Andric identified himslef as Serbian writer rejecting the ofer citing unacceptable wartime conditions. As to the language, in the Ivo Andric, Writer speaks through his works book, Andric said his language is the language of Vuk (Stefanovic Karadzic) and of Njegos (Petar Petrovic) i.e. the Serbian language. The idea of serbo-croatian language as a common language Bosnia and Herzegovina was introduced by Austrian bureaucracy after 1875. The same idea was alive in both Yugoslavias until 1972 when Croats rejected it. Vuk and Njegos lived and died before introduction of the serbo-croatian language.

At the end, to make the article more factual, remove all contested claims, or, at least, provide insight into the sources contradicting the article statements mentioned in this comment.