Dobrica Ćosić

Serbian novelist, essayist, and politician

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: May 14, 2025 • Article History

Quick Facts

Born:: December 29, 1921, Velika Drenova, Serbia

Died:: May 18, 2014, Belgrade (aged 92)

See all related content

Dobrica Ćosić (born December 29, 1921, Velika Drenova, Serbia—died May 18, 2014, Belgrade) was a Serbian novelist, essayist, and politician, who wrote historical novels about the tribulations of the Serbs.

After attending agricultural school, Ćosić served in World War II with the Yugoslav communists known as Partisans and afterward became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and of the government. His strong Serbian nationalism caused him to be expelled from office in 1968. Ćosić rejoined politics in the 1990s, serving as president of Yugoslavia in 1992–93, during the first year of its re-formation. He was ultimately brought down, however, by extreme Serbian nationalists.

Ćosić examined the resistance movement and other aspects of Serbian involvement in World War II in the novels Daleko je sunce (1951; Far Away Is the Sun) and Deobe (1961; “Divisions”). Koreni (1954; “Roots”) chronicles the establishment of Serbian independence from the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. Tracing characters introduced in Koreni, Ćosić produced the four-volume epic Vreme smrti (1972–79; A Time of Death), a work set during World War I. Ćosić brought the story into the mid-20th century with the trilogy Vreme zla (1990; “A Time of Evil”), which comprises Grešnik (1985; “Sinner”), Otpadnik (1986; “Renegade”), and Vernik (1990; “Believer”). He also wrote the novels Bajka (1966; “A Fable”) and Racines (1992). Ćosić’s nonfiction works include Kosovo (2004) and Vreme, prijatelji (2005; “Time, Friends”).

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Ivo Andrić

Table of Contents

Introduction References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Ivo Andrić

Serbo-Croatian author

Written by Gordana P. Crnković

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Quick Facts

Born:: Oct. 10, 1892, Dolac, near Travnik, Bosnia

Died:: March 13, 1975, Belgrade, Yugos. [now Serbia] (aged 82)

Awards And Honors:: Nobel Prize (1961)

Notable Works:: “The Bridge on the Drina”

See all related content

Ivo Andrić (born Oct. 10, 1892, Dolac, near Travnik, Bosnia—died March 13, 1975, Belgrade, Yugos. [now Serbia]) was a writer of novels and short stories in the Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian language, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961.

Andrić studied in Poland and Austria. His potential as a writer of both prose and verse was recognized early, and his reputation was established with Ex Ponto (1918), a contemplative, lyrical prose work written during his internment by Austro-Hungarian authorities for nationalistic political activities during World War I. Collections of his short stories were published at intervals from 1920 onward.

Following World War I, he entered the Yugoslavian diplomatic service. Although his career took him to Rome, Bucharest (in Romania), Madrid, Geneva, and Berlin, it was his native province, with its wealth of ethnic types, that provided the themes and psychological studies to be found in his works. Of his three novels, written during the Second World War, two—Travnička hronika (1945; Bosnian Story) and Na Drini ćuprija (1945; The Bridge on the Drina)—are concerned with the history of Bosnia.

The Bridge on the Drina constructs four centuries of Bosnian history by narrating historical events as well as stories about individuals connected to the famous Ottoman bridge in Višegrad and by paralleling historical narration with folk legends and tales on the same subjects. Taking a different approach, Bosnian Story portrays the Bosnian milieu through the eyes of foreigners—the French, Austrian, and Ottoman consuls stationed in the city of Travnik at the time of Napoleon. Andrić preserves a critical distance from these Western and Eastern lenses of his narrative, but he also sees Bosnia through them, indirectly illustrating the fact that a writer cannot achieve an unmediated approach to his own culture.

Writing during periods when Serbo-Croatian was officially considered one language in Yugoslavia, Andrić first used its Croatian form and later its Serbian form. He is claimed as part of Croatian literature, Serbian literature, and Bosnian literature. His works are written soberly, in language of great beauty and purity. The Nobel Prize committee commented particularly on the “epic force” with which he handled his material, especially in The Bridge on the Drina.

Gordana P. Crnković