Doina
Ruști

The Golden Ass is not merely a late-antique novel, but one of those texts that continue to shape the modern imagination. Metamorphosis, dreams, degradation, and revelation function here as forms of knowledge — and, for ...

This text is part of a series of reflections on foundational cultural beginnings. The first century, the formative age of Christianity, remains for me one of the essential matrices of the European imagination: a time ...

As she completes the novel Nas de bulgar, the sequel to Ferenike, Doina Ruști reflects on identity, love, and Balkan heritage—moving from a memorable encounter with an American writer to the personal history that underlies her ...

There’s something both restless and tender about writers born beneath the snow. February seems to bind them through a pale light and a constant curiosity — half dream, half clarity. This “aquatic kinship” came alive ...

The novel Fantoma din moară (The Ghost in the Mill) is examined in The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters (Routledge, New York) as a form of Eastern European neo-Gothic associated with late postmodernism. This critical classification ...

Invited to the Lu Xun Academy of Literature in Beijing, writer Doina Ruști kept a seven-part journal during her residency in China. First published as weekly dispatches in Libertatea, these texts retrace a literary experience ...

Scenes of love are not easy to write. Hypocritically, the young writer avoids, under the very pretentious pretext, that physical love should not be narrated. It is true that you can quickly become stupid, but ...

The winter holidays have roots far older than Christianity, reaching back to the solstice, fire rituals, and the magical interval when the world pauses and begins again. Between etymology and legend, this New Year’s story ...

Set between history and imagination, this urban myth traces the forgotten cult of a cat goddess and its transformation into one of Europe’s most persistent superstitions. Through the story of Myrrhina, a priestess in exile, ...

Perfumes tell me their stories at length, placing me in contact with countless hidden histories. An interview by Claudiu Sfirschi-Lăudat

Interviews with Doina Ruști reveal a surprising coherence, as if they were written as continuations of one another. Literature, memory, identity, the role of dreams, and the relationship with readers constantly reappear, gradually forming a ...

The Golden Ass is not merely a late-antique novel, but one of those texts that continue to shape the modern imagination. Metamorphosis, dreams, degradation, and revelation function here as forms of knowledge — and, for ...

This text is part of a series of reflections on foundational cultural beginnings. The first century, the formative age of Christianity, remains for me one of the essential matrices of the European imagination: a time ...

As she completes the novel Nas de bulgar, the sequel to Ferenike, Doina Ruști reflects on identity, love, and Balkan heritage—moving from a memorable encounter with an American writer to the personal history that underlies her ...

My first letter, my first book: how I began to write and to read.

The strange stories from Cărtărescu’s Nostalgia, Patapievici’s vision of Dante’s world, and the adventures of Zogru, the protagonist of my eponymous novel, were the main subjects of discussion.

The eagle is one of the essential archetypes of the Mediterranean world, and for Romanians it may be regarded as a totem with archaic roots.

Out of the weeds suddenly rose a figure—an old woman of sorts, in rags, with disheveled hair and a necklace of gold around her neck

In my book A Dictionary of Symbols in the Work of Mircea Eliade (Dicționar de simboluri din opera lui Mircea Eliade, 1997), I dedicated an entire entry to the symbolism of Sânziene. This solstitial feast is ...

The words in dreams are always in a subtle relationship with obsessions and fears, with irradiated zones, with exiled events or those about to be pushed to the margins of our being.

The world was waking up, the grass was burning, and the nobleman was writing in watery green ink: May 16, 1806. “Please buy me some…”

In this personal essay, the author explores the dark folklore surrounding Tuesday, personified in Romanian tradition as Saint Tuesday (Marțisara), a cruel and punitive figure rooted in ancient myth. Blending etymology, legend, and reflection, the ...

A sharp civic confession exposing nepotism, conflicts of interest, and ethical erosion within Romania’s cultural funding institutions. The author challenges the normalization of family-based advantages and argues that public money and cultural promotion must be ...

Zogru waited bored on a shelf, patiently expecting his turn. I felt sorry that he had lost his enthusiasm; I empathized with him. A Parisian Saturday evening, surrounded by a sea of people—you can imagine ...

In 2003, while trying to build my first website and struggling with the terror of my own photographic image, I walked into Suțu Palace in Bucharest. There, I encountered a nineteenth-century merchant whose painted portrait ...

Invited to the Lu Xun Academy of Literature in Beijing, writer Doina Ruști kept a seven-part journal during her residency in China. First published as weekly dispatches in Libertatea, these texts retrace a literary experience ...

The great stories have already been told