The Jewish "Other" in Ivo Andrić‘s The Bridge on the Drina

Abstract

This article analyzes the representation of Jewish characters in Ivo Andrić‘s novel The Bridge on the Drina. The analysis progresses chronologically through the novel, taking note of the increased frequency and length of the Jewish characterizations that reflect the community‘s evolution, growing freedoms, and increased visibility in Višegrad, Bosnia between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. The author pays particular attention to the lone Jewish female character in the novel, Lotte, whose Otherness—as a Jew, an impoverished widow, a woman, and a foreigner—is utilized by Andrić to portray actions, choices, and behaviours that are outside the norm for a woman of her era The trajectory of Lotte‘s character, a steady rise and a steep downfall precipitated by the First World War, serves as an important metaphor for many of the novel‘s central themes: secularization, modernization, migration, and the ultimate fallibility of imperial rule.