On 26 October 1961, Ivo Andrić made the news as the winner of the Nobel Prize. The famous writer learned about it in his apartment in downtown Belgrade, where he lived. He later travelled to Stockholm, where he received this prestigious honour in person, on this day 60 years ago. In honour of our Nobel laureate, Savremena’s students learned about Ivo Andrić’s life and work.

The lesson dedicated to the 60th anniversary of Ivo Andrić’s Nobel Prize started with important information about his life and work. The teacher explained the importance of this prize and the significance of Andrić’s work in the context of that time.

KEEPING TRADITION ALIVE AND PRESERVING THE MEMORY OF IVO ANDRIĆ

People pass, but their works remain. Ivo Andrić will live forever through his works. These words from teacher Marija Šaponjić were a fittingly beautiful introduction into a very inspiring fifth-grade lesson. She went on to read Andrić’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech “About Story and Telling”, and then the students viewed a video of the prize announcement.

Students found the following part of the speech especially thrilling, as it is so evocative of the atmosphere of the era:

My homeland is indeed “a little country among worlds”, as one of our writers put it; it is a country that strives to make rapid strides, through great sacrifice and remarkable effort, to make up for what the extraordinarily tumultuous and hard past denied it. Through this recognition, you have cast a beam of light toward the country’s literature, at the time when our literature is starting to penetrate the world, with a number of new names and original works sharing a justified effort to provide an adequate contribution to world literature.

The end of the lesson was marked by a sincere applause, and the students shared their eager anticipation of Serbian language and literature lessons reserved for Andrić’s works.

THE IMPORTANCE OF READING BOOKS FOR CHILDREN

Books make faithful friends to children and grown-ups alike. We strive to kindle a love for literature among Savremena’s students, as reading books enriches the speech by new expressions, ennobles the personality and cultivates culture. With each book they read, children learn something new and reach the depths of other people, which is conducive to intelligence, the power of discussion, and imagination while they try to picture the characters.

This is a good time to mention Savremena’s dear writer Maša, who placed second in a literary competition.

She is a great example of how nice it is to nourish a love for literature from the earliest age.