Litigando con il mondo

by Ivo Andrić, Božidar Stanišić (Editor), Alice Parmeggiani (Translator)

Ambientati tra Sarajevo e Visegrad agli inizi del secolo scorso, i sette racconti di questa raccolta sono accomunati dalla giovane età dei loro protagonisti, invariabilmente chiamati a fare i conti con le difficoltà e i turbamenti della fase più cruciale dell'esistenza. E a confrontarsi per la prima volta con le evidenze di un mondo, quello degli adulti, che ancora non conoscono, e che si rivela loro alternando l'incanto della scoperta al dolore per i sogni infranti e le molte attese deluse. Sono proprio questi momenti fatali, momenti che spesso affidiamo, più o meno consapevolmente, ai più remoti anfratti della nostra memoria, a occupare il centro, a rappresentare la costante di questa narrazione intensa ed evocativa. Ed è la straordinaria sensibilità narrativa di Andric a farli riaffiorare nuovamente puri, come un distillato d'esperienza, e a suggerirci quanto importanti e necessari siano quei dilemmi, paure e battaglie che, mentre varcavamo la linea d'ombra che immette nell'età adulta, hanno portato ciascuno di noi, anche solo per un attimo, a litigare con il mondo.

148 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2012

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

[flaminia · Rating 4 out of 5]

continua il mio grande amore per andric - un racconto come "panorama" vale millemila romanzi. daje.

[Giuls (la_fisiolettrice) · Rating 3 out of 5]

In questi racconti, Andrić custodisce il turbamento dell’adolescenza, quel tempo di soglia in cui ogni gesto sembra definitivo e le conseguenze si rivelano solo dopo averla attraversata.

La vita degli adulti, vista dall’adolescenza, è spesso incomprensibile. Da qui nascono lotte quotidiane per affermare la propria individualità e il diritto di scegliere, fino a litigare con il mondo pur di difenderli. In ogni racconto c’è un piccolo dramma, l’accettazione di un cambiamento; spesso un oggetto o un pensiero si fa “sogno”, o apre a un’altra storia. Le scintille della narrazione sono il dolore e la paura di emozioni che i giovani protagonisti di Andrić non sanno ancora governare: sentono tutto d’istinto e hanno desideri inesauribili.

[Frabe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Questi sette racconti di Ivo Andrić (1892-1975, premio Nobel per la letteratura 1961), scritti tra il 1936 e il 1960, sono accomunati dalla giovane o giovanissima età dei protagonisti e da un passaggio topico nel loro processo formativo. Lo sguardo dell'autore sta in questa considerazione: “I piccoli uomini che noi chiamiamo “bambini” hanno i loro grandi dolori e le loro lunghe sofferenze, che in seguito, quando sono persone sagge e adulte, dimenticano. O meglio, perdono di vista. Ma se potessimo calarci di nuovo indietro nell'infanzia, come nel banco delle elementari da cui siamo da tanto tempo usciti, potremmo di nuovo rivederli. Laggiù, da quella prospettiva, quei dolori e quelle sofferenze continuano a vivere ed esistono come realtà.” Parole sagge, condivisibili. La lettura, però, ora proficua e gradevole, è risultata a tratti noiosetta.

[Antonio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Racconti di gran delicatezza, nei quali personaggi e paesaggi trascolorano l’uno verso l’altro, come sospesi tra un realismo disincantato e un passato che emerge, in sottofondo, a tratti grandioso o spietatamente tragico.
“Ogni campo qui è un cimitero a strati, una necropoli sull'altra, a immagine delle differenti popolazioni che sono nate e morte in questi luoghi nel corso dei secoli, un'epoca dopo l'altra, una generazione dopo l'altra. Questi cimiteri sono testimonianze di vita, non di vuoto e di desolazione."

[Kevan Houser · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit I had never heard of Ivo Andrić, although he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961. So when I happened on this Italian-language edition in the used bookstore, I snapped it up. One goal of reading should be to learn about other people, cultures, and times, right? I honestly can't recall reading any literature from the former Yugoslavia, so this work, a collection of seven short stories set in the 1930s to 1960s, definitely filled a gap in my cultural knowledge.

I can't read the original Serbian, but I found Alice Parmeggiani's Italian translation (published in 2012) beautifully and skillfully written, a true joy to read. (Complimenti, Alice, proprio un bel lavoro!)

I'm not sure if there is an English-translation edition of these same seven short stories, but the Italian title is (roughly) "Fighting with the World," which is the title of the first story, and the others are (roughly) "On the Bank," "The Tower," "Mila and Prelac," "The Book," "The Panorama," and "The Excursion." The stories center on adolescents as they face the mysteries and wonders and challenges of impending adulthood. I found the tone wistful, a bit sad, melancholic. Some stories seemed to be an almost-random succession of (interesting) anecdotes.

Despite the historic setting and unfamiliar country, it's all pretty standard fare—some things are pretty much universal, such as adolescent innocence, angst, discovery.

Although I enjoyed the stories, I wasn't overly struck by them, and I didn't see anything that shouted "Nobel!" to me. Obviously, these stories are only a small portion of the author's work, so I obviously can't judge him fairly based on this collection alone. I definitely would like to read one of his novels in the future.

[Federico Mangano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ivo Andric è famoso per il suo capolavoro "il ponte sulla Drina" (giustamente) ma questi racconti non sono da meno.

Ci raccontano gli adolescenti in maniera perfetta e ancora attuale, come ogni libro che può essere definito un classico, non curandosi della distanza temporale da noi