The Storied Yugoslavia: A Dialogue of Mythistory, Power and Storied Yugoslav National Context in Ivo Andrić's The Bridge on the Drina (1945/1959) and Emir Kustruica's Underground (1995)

This thesis examines a dialogue between two texts meant to contribute to the mythistory (Aleksić, 2007) and what I term the storied context of the second Yugoslav Experiment (1945-1995). From within the lens of my own diasporic context, I juxtapose Ivo Andrić’s novel The Bridge on the Drina (1945/1959), published at the nation’s outset, against Emir Kusturica’s film Underground (1995), produced at Yugoslavia’s failing end. I analyze the thematic connections and ideological constraints to the conversation between these two texts by establishing the parameters of both Kusturica’s successful and unsuccessful attempts to engage Andrić’s novel. A template for the continued overlaying of “discrepant voices” (Said, 1993) is revealed for further examination both backward into the mythistories of the Southwest Slavs of the Balkans and forward into the construction of storied contexts in the former Yugoslav states. Finally, a discussion of the influence of the West’s own imaginary of the former Yugoslavia and its influence of contextualizing stories of the same is also examined.