Ivo Andrić: Bosnian and Serbian Nationalism (Book review: Zoran Milutinović, Bitka za prošlost. Ivo Andrić i bošnjački nacionalizam, Beograd: Geopoetika, 2018. 384 pp. ISBN: 978–86–6145–296–3 & Zoran Milutinović, Fantom u biblioteci. Postoji li srpski nacionalistički diskurs o Ivi Andriću?, Beograd: Geopoetika, 2022. 256 pp. ISBN: 978–86–6145–388–5)

Abstract

The double review deals with two books by Zoran Milutinović. Bitka za prošlost [The Battle for the Past] (2018) explores the Bosnian nationalist reception of Ivo Andrić in the form of an in-depth discourse analysis. Milutinović points out the biases of this discourse, the unsoundness of its arguments and the unprofessionalism of its reading. Notable among the reactions to the book was a study by Nenad Veličković, in which he argued that the Bosnian nationalist reception was merely a reaction to Andrić’s Serbian nationalist reception. Milutinović has devoted his book Fantom u biblioteci [Phantom in the Library] (2022) to a thorough examination of this claim, in which he takes stock of the critical reception and points out its unfoundedness.