SOURCE: Eekman, Thomas. “Ivo Andrić's Short Stories in the Context of the South Slavic Prose Tradition.” In Ivo Andrić Revisited: The Bridge Still Stands, edited by Wayne S. Vucinich, pp. 47-62. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California, 1995.

In the following essay, Eekman places Andrić's short stories in the context of the South Slavic literary tradition.

In the United States and Western Europe, Ivo Andrić is considered a representative of Bosnian literature, a painter of historical Bosnian life—and to many people he is even the representative of Yugoslav—i.e., South Slavic—literature and culture. This unique position can in no way be denied him, and his uniqueness has been demonstrated, studied, and corroborated in numerous articles, essays, and books. In this contribution I would like to draw attention to his position within the traditions and trends of South Slavic prose writing—his niche in the literary...