Opposing Characters and Strong Positions of Literary Texts in Andrić’s Novels (Contrasting the Original Text and Its Italian Translation)

Abstract

This paper analyzes opposing characters and strong textual positions in the novels The Damned Yard and Omer Pasha Latas. Through antithetical dynamics, Andrić presents one of his fundamental motifs—the (un)bridgeable gap between power and intellectuals—which, in the case of Ćamil in The Damned Yard, leads to a tragic outcome and a significant loss for both the community and the ruler. In contrast, Omer Pasha Latas suggests the possibility of overcoming this conflict through the relationship between Omer Pasha and the artist Karas. The analysis focuses on narrative techniques, text organization, and plot dynamics, with an emphasis on universal values and recurring patterns of human destinies in Andrić’s work. In addition to examining characters and literary techniques in The Damned Yard, the paper also explores the effectiveness of conveying cultural and
linguistic specificities in the Italian translation. The subject of interest is the analysis of the formal, semantic and functional values of strong textual positions in the original text (the novel’s title and several comparative and phraseological constructions) as well as theircontrastwiththeir Italian
equivalents. Since Omer Pasha Latas has not been translated into Italian, this novel will be used exclusively in its original form to provide a more comprehensive contextualization of the universal themes that Andrić addresses in his works.