Zbornik Radova Filozofskog Fakulteta u Prištini (Jan 2011)
The novel of differences: Chronicles of Travnik by Ivo Andric, an interpretation
Abstract
The novel Chronicles of Travnik represents the most lengthy work of Ivo Andric. It is his first novel written in the April of 1942. It was printed in 1945 as a third novel in a series of novels by Andric published the same year: The Woman from Sarajevo, The bridge on the Drina, Chronicles of Travnik. Andric, however, started working on the novel in question many years before it was published. The paper considers some of the greatest and most characteristic problems inherent in the novel Chronicles of Travnik. After the unavoidable introductory part of the novel, the paper deals with the problem of silence (Silence of a dumb land), Travnik and its inhabitants, and their social status, major character traits of the inhabitants, newcomers in Travnik (Foreigners of Travnik), hope (Candle), the absurd (The absurd death) and finally with he problem of God (There is no God in Travnik). These fragments are an indication of the significance of the novel, which is certainly one of the greatest novels in the history of both Serbian and European literature. It is a novel of the clash between The East and The West, fear and hope, life and death!.
