CONVERSATION WITH GOYA BRIDGES SIGNS BY THE ROADSIDE

Conversation With Goya. Bridges. Signs By The Roadside / Razgovor sa Gojom. Mostovi. Znakovi pored puta (II izdanje)

The work which most obviously spans the categories of fact and fiction, history and legend is the Conversation with Goya (1935). Here, the author’s identification with his subject is complete. The ideas attributed to Goya are in fact Andrić's own reflections on the nature of art, provoked by an affinity with the painter's work. Had Andrić been interrogated as Ćamil was, he would have had to reply: "I am he".

The form of this piece, which has been used by other modern writers, brings it closer to a work of art than an essay. Goya's physical appearence is described briefly with particular attention to his hands, the bridge between the painter's physical existence and the world of his imagination. The "conversation", like so many of Andrić's works, is set in a frame with two dimension: the timelessness of a small French café, and the reference to a circus being set up outside it. The fact that the café is near Bordeaux rather than in Spain suggests the insignifiance of man-made geographical divisions.
The main idea presented in the essay is that the situation of the artist described as ambiguous and often painful. He is resented as suspect, concealed behind a number of masks. The artist's destiny "insincerity and contradiction, uncertanity and a constant vain endeavour to bring together things which cannot be joined".

Signs Along the Road: The collection of these notes entitled "Znakovi pored puta"/ "Signs by the roadside" as well as "Sveske"/"Notebooks", published after Andrić’s death, can be best described as the writer's intellectual diaries. As may be imagined of a man who recoiled so consistently from any exposure of his private life and thoughts, Andrić was equally consistent in his dislike of the diary as a genre, seeing it as a misguided search for permanence.

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Dvojezično, srpsko-englesko, izdanje tri dela našeg proslavljenog nobelovca, Ive Andrića, u izvrsnom prevodu Silvije Hoksvort.

Razgovor s Gojom (1936) predstavlja zamišljen dijalog sa velikim umetnikom, jednim od najznačajnijih predstavnika španskog i evropskog romantizma u slikarstvu. Andrić nam ovde otkriva svoje kompleksno shvatanje umetnosti, govoreći o njenoj dvostrukoj prirodi, božanskoj i demonskoj, kao i o prosvetiteljskoj luči koja odabrane osvetljava iznutra, a oni to svetlo prenose običnim ljudima. To je poziv koji donosi mnoga zadovoljstva i mnoga stradanja, teret koji je u isto vreme prokletstvo i blagoslov.

U Mostovima Andrić piše o najznačajnijem simbolu svog celokupnog dela. Mostovi su otelovljenje vremena i trajanja, sile i snage, žrtve i njene nepokolebljivosti. Oni ne povezuju samo obale, već i epohe, ljude, žive i mrtve, narode, države. Oni predstavljaju jednu od najkorenitijih čovekovih težnji, da pređe na drugu obalu, težnje koja mostom postaje cilj i smisao, i tako uvede red u naše postojanje. Tom težnjom čovek prevladava smrt, makar i simbolično, te razbuktava plamen nade bez kojeg se ljudska egzistencija pretvara u puko vegetiranje, jer, kako kaže sam Andrić, „... Sva je naša nada s one strane”.

Znakovi pored puta, posthumno objavljeni, predstavljaju jedan od vrhunaca meditativne proze na srpskom jeziku. Ovde je uvršten izbor najinteresantnijih delova koji nam je priredila Silvija Hoksvort. To je duhovni dnevnik velikog pisca koji je pisao godinama, bez posebne namere da od toga stvori veliku knjigu, ali je na kraju svakako to i učinio. Upravo nepretencioznošću kojom Andrić tretira duboka metafizička i egzistencijalna pitanja čitalac je privučen i uvučen u magični svet znakova-krajputaša na kojima traži svoje unutrašnje smerove.