Editing Ivo Andrić (section)

==Influences, style and themes==
[[File:Cuprija na Drini u Visegradu.jpg|thumb|right|[[Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge]], the eponymous bridge on the Drina]]
Andrić was an avid reader in his youth. The young Andrić's literary interests varied greatly, ranging from the Greek and Latin [[Classics]] to the works of past and contemporary literary figures, including German and Austrian writers such as [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]], [[Heinrich Heine]], [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], [[Franz Kafka]], [[Rainer Maria Rilke]] and [[Thomas Mann]], the French writers [[Michel de Montaigne]], [[Blaise Pascal]], [[Gustave Flaubert]], [[Victor Hugo]] and [[Guy de Maupassant]], and the British writers [[Thomas Carlyle]], [[Walter Scott]] and [[Joseph Conrad]]. Andrić also read the works of the Spanish writer [[Miguel de Cervantes]], the Italian poet and philosopher [[Giacomo Leopardi]], the Russian writer [[Nikolay Chernyshevsky]], the Norwegian writer [[Henrik Ibsen]], the American writers [[Walt Whitman]] and [[Henry James]], and the Czechoslovak philosopher [[Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk]].{{sfn|Vucinich|1995|p=2}} Andrić was especially fond of Polish literature, and later stated that it had greatly influenced him. He held several Serb writers in high esteem, particularly Karadžić, Njegoš, Kočić and [[Aleksa Šantić]].{{sfn|Vucinich|1995|p=2}} Andrić also admired the Slovene poets [[Fran Levstik]], [[Josip Murn]] and [[Oton Župančič]], and translated some of their works.{{sfn|Vucinich|1995|pp=2–3}} Kafka appears to have had a significant influence on Andrić's prose, and his philosophical outlook was informed strongly by the works of Danish philosopher [[Søren Kierkegaard]]. At one point in his youth, Andrić even took an interest in Chinese and Japanese literature.{{sfn|Vucinich|1995|p=3}}

Much of Andrić's work was inspired by the traditions and peculiarities of life in Bosnia, and examines the complexity and cultural contrasts of the region's Muslim, Serb and Croat inhabitants. His two best known novels, ''Na Drini ćuprija'' and ''Travnička hronika'', subtly contrast Ottoman Bosnia's "oriental" propensities to the "Western atmosphere" first introduced by the French and later the Austro-Hungarians.{{sfn|Moravcevich|1980|p=23}} His works contain many words of Turkish, Arabic or Persian origin that found their way into the languages of the South Slavs during Ottoman rule. According to Vucinich, Andrić uses these words to "express oriental nuances and subtleties that cannot be rendered as well in his own Serbo-Croatian".{{sfn|Vucinich|1995|p=2}}

In the opinion of literary historian [[Nikola Moravčević|Nicholas Moravcevich]], Andrić's work "frequently betrays his profound sadness over the misery and waste inherent in the passing of time".{{sfn|Moravcevich|1980|p=23}} ''Na Drini ćuprija'' remains his most famous novel and has received the most scholarly analysis of all his works. Most scholars have interpreted the eponymous bridge as a [[metonym]] for Yugoslavia, which was itself a bridge between East and West during the [[Cold War]].{{sfn|Wachtel|1998|p=161}} In his Nobel acceptance speech, Andrić described the country as one "which, at break-neck speed and at the cost of great sacrifices and prodigious efforts, is trying in all fields, including the field of culture, to make up for those things of which it has been deprived by a singularly turbulent and hostile past."{{sfn|Carmichael|2015|p=107}} In Andrić's view, the seemingly conflicting positions of Yugoslavia's disparate ethnic groups could be overcome by knowing one's history. This, he surmised, would help future generations avoid the mistakes of the past, and was in line with his cyclical view of time. Andrić expressed hope that these differences could be bridged and "histories demystified".{{sfn|Wachtel|1998|p=216}}