The Bridge on the Drina

The eponymous bridge on the Drina is the most distinct symbol in the text. The construction of the bridge occupies the opening passages of the novel, while the destruction of the bridge is the closing image. In that sense, the bridge bookends the text. It is the subject of the narrative, and it also symbolizes the link between the east and the west. It brings together two distinct communities: the eastern, oriental, Muslim Turks and the western, Christian Serbs. With this particular area of the Balkans becoming such a hotbed of nationalism and conflict during the author’s lifetime (and beyond), the symbolic meaning of the bridge suggests that common ground can be found between these two groups, though it is not always easy.

At the center of the bridge is the kapia. This flattened, extended area becomes a center of the community. Men meet, drink, sing, and smoke cigarettes on the kapia. People do business there, and it hosts acts of historical importance, such as executions and suicides. If the bridge is the symbol of the joined communities, then the kapia is the communal space where this unity is tested to its extremes.