SOURCE: Hawkesworth, Celia. “Essays and Reflective Prose.” In Ivo Andrić: Bridge between East and West, pp. 206-33. Dover, N.H.: Athlone Press, 1984.

In the following excerpt, Hawkesworth examines major themes in Andrić's nonfiction prose.

Essays and Critical Writings

Andrić wrote a number of essays, reviews and articles which were scattered through various newspapers and periodicals. They were not collected in book form until the writer's death, but now a good idea of the range of Andrić's interests in these writings, and their quality, can be gained from the selections published. Until recently these writings have been considered only as a kind of appendage to Andrić's fiction and verse, and the writer himself has said that he wrote them only in the intervals between his fictional works, when he was exhausted. Nevertheless, it would be equally appropriate to consider them before the rest of Andrić's...