Vuk’s and Babel’s humour in “The Bridge on the Drina” and “The Days of Consuls” by Ivo Andrić

Abstract

Although proverbially considered a writer of exceptionally tragic anthropological vision, Andrić is a prime humourist. Seemingly contradictory at first glance, this claim makes perfect sense when the notion of humour is dislodged from the realm of common language practice and examined more closely in the light of aestheticism and literary theory, by means of which a clear division emerges, which separates humour from other laughter-generating literary devices, such as irony, comedy and the grotesque. The basic feature of genuine literary humour is reflected in its extreme closeness with the tragic elements in any given text, and this is precisely what makes interpretations of Andrić in this context purposeful. The humour in his text is sometimes founded on oral traditions and a superb knowledge of local folklore, as is the case in his novel The Bridge on the Drina, and sometimes thrives on the clash of cultures and civilisations, different customs and mentality, as seen in The Days of Consuls. Regardless of whether we talk of Vuk’s humour or the Babel’s humour, it is the one element in Andrić’s novels that most successfully marks the tragic elements in terms of style, sometimes it even goes beyond and becomes a form of surpassing the absurdity of human existence in an artistic fashion.