Mara Milosnica

by Ivo Andrić

"Mara Milosnica" jedna je u nizu Andrićevih pripovedaka o kobnosti lepote i zlu kojem je njen nosilac izložen. Ispričana je iz objektivne pripovedačke perspektive u, za Andrića uobičajenom, trećem licu. Mara je nesrećna devojka koju je turski paša ugledao u pekari njenog oca i u njenom izvijenom telu - htela je da dohvati hleb sa visoke police - prepoznao demonsku fatalnost ženskog principa. Posle pašinog neprikosnovenog naređenja da se to prelepo čeljade dovede u njegove odaje, Mara, kćerka turske naložnice, i sama to postaje.

63 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1926

About the author

Ivo Andrić (Serbian Cyrillic: Иво Андрић; born Ivan Andrić) was a Yugoslav novelist, poet and short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961. His writings dealt mainly with life in his native Bosnia under Ottoman rule.
Born in Travnik in Austria-Hungary, modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, Andrić attended high school in Sarajevo, where he became an active member of several South Slav national youth organizations. Following the assassination of Archduke of Austria Franz Ferdinand in June 1914, Andrić was arrested and imprisoned by the Austro-Hungarian police, who suspected his involvement in the plot. As the authorities were unable to build a strong case against him, he spent much of the war under house arrest, only being released following a general amnesty for such cases in July 1917. After the war, he studied South Slavic history and literature at universities in Zagreb and Graz, eventually attaining his PhD. in Graz in 1924. He worked in the diplomatic service of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1920 to 1923 and again from 1924 to 1941. In 1939, he became Yugoslavia's ambassador to Germany, but his tenure ended in April 1941 with the German-led invasion of his country. Shortly after the invasion, Andrić returned to German-occupied Belgrade. He lived quietly in a friend's apartment for the duration of World War II, in conditions likened by some biographers to house arrest, and wrote some of his most important works, including Na Drini ćuprija (The Bridge on the Drina).
Following the war, Andrić was named to a number of ceremonial posts in Yugoslavia, which had since come under communist rule. In 1961, the Nobel Committee awarded him the Nobel Prize in Literature, selecting him over writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert Frost, John Steinbeck and E.M. Forster. The Committee cited "the epic force with which he ... traced themes and depicted human destinies drawn from his country's history". Afterwards, Andrić's works found an international audience and were translated into a number of languages. In subsequent years, he received a number of awards in his native country. Andrić's health declined substantially in late 1974 and he died in Belgrade the following March.
In the years following Andrić's death, the Belgrade apartment where he spent much of World War II was converted into a museum and a nearby street corner was named in his honour. A number of other cities in the former Yugoslavia also have streets bearing his name. In 2012, filmmaker Emir Kusturica began construction of an ethno-town in eastern Bosnia that is named after Andrić. As Yugoslavia's only Nobel Prize-winning writer, Andrić was well known and respected in his native country during his lifetime. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, beginning in the 1950s and continuing past the breakup of Yugoslavia, his works have been disparaged by Bosniak literary critics for their supposed anti-Muslim bias. In Croatia, his works had occasionally been blacklisted following Yugoslavia's dissolution in the 1990s, but were rehabilitated by the literary community. He is highly regarded in Serbia for his contributions to Serbian literature.

Reviews

[Carrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ja volim da pijem, ali me pijana niko nije vidio. Kavge ne tražim, ali, šućur, umijem da se bijem. Nemam ni para ni veresije, ni kučeta ni mačeta. Boga se bojim, sultana služim, i - evo mu ko mi šta može.

[Dunja Tomić · Rating 4 out of 5]

''Za veselje ne znaju.
Zajažena životna radost javlja se kao silovita strast i ispad, pojedinačni ili skupni.
Ono što težak život i nemilosrdna borba još ostave u njima od čovjeka,
smiruju u vjerskoj ceremoniji ili ustaljenim i prostim formama familijarne privrženosti i trgovačke časti.
U vanrednim slučajevima pokazuju neočekivanu solidarnost, smjelost, blagodarnost i veličinu.
Tako se rađaju, udaju,
žene, stiču, žive dugo, teško gluvo.

I tu se jednom javila ljubav; kad je Rifka zavoljela Ledenika.'' <3

[Bono]

Jedna od takozvanih ženskih pripovijetki, koja za razliku od Anikinih vremena, kojom se pripovijeda o tragičnoj sudbini žene koja se pronevaljalila, ne sadrži u svojoj poanti tu femme fatale silinu, nego naprosto tragiku jednog plahog, neiskvarenog bića koje je prvi puta umrlo čekajući voljenog, a drugi puta i fizički pri pokušaju dojenja Nevenkinog djeteta oslabljenom svom fizionomijom.