SOURCE: "The Basic World View in the Short Stories of Ivo Andrić," in The Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. X, No. 2, Summer, 1966, pp. 173-77.

In the following essay, Mihailovich discusses the defining characteristics of Andrić's short stories.

Ivo Andrić settled upon the short story as the genre most appropriate to him very early in his literary career. The main features of his narrative style are already discernible in his first stories and there is relatively little change in his basic world view or in his literary craftsmanship during the five decades of his development. Even his early works, poems in prose, and later his novels reveal his predilection for short story techniques. Essentially, Andrić has always remained a short story writer.¹

The world of Ivo Andrić is most frequently Bosnia with its plethora of races, nationalities, religions, and creeds. The narrow region of Bosnia, however, widens...