Writers rarely meet in quiet places. Most often, they cross paths amid the bustle of festivals, book launches, and travels. This page is a gallery of such encounters. But also of others, more tranquil ones, from Bucharest gardens, from the streets, or simply those chance meetings on the staircase, as one enters a building.
“My doctoral thesis was about alterity and its symbols. At the time, I argued that the simple encounter that triggers emotion entails an act of revising one’s own being through mirroring, through the analysis of coincidences and of striking differences on a subjective plane of perception. Comparing oneself with the Other has its roots in an instinct of kinship, more precisely in that primordial feeling of coexistence, which Husserl defines as the measure of the awareness of the Other in the process of understanding one’s own identity. Therefore, if I am to present my encounters, I will accompany them with my reflections on alterity.”
Doina Ruști
Doina Ruști, Cătălin D. Constantin, Suțu Palace, 2020
Doina Ruști, Nicolae Breban, 2011
Doina Ruști, Ioan Groșan, Museum of Romanian Literature
Sardinia Festival: Marcelo Fois, Omar Di Monopoli, Doina Ruști, Simonetta Bitasi, Roberto Merlo
Doina Ruști, Paul Cernat
Doina Ruști, Mircea Cărtărescu, Ioana Nicolaie
Doina Ruști, Petre Barbu, Rome
Gavoi
Sardinia, festival: Marcelo Fois, Omar di Monapoli, Doina Rusti, Simonetta Bitasi, Roberto Merlo
Doina Ruști, Paul Cernat, at the launch of The Ghost in the Mill, 2008
Doina Ruști, Paul Cernat, 2019
“One cannot speak about encounters without thinking of Emmanuel Lévinas. For him, the elements of the logical framework through which being can be defined are the social relation, the idea of the infinite, and the crisis of a content that exceeds form. In his view, the human being is shaped in relation to the Other, without this implying imitation or relations of superiority and inferiority; each person finds themselves through the appeal to the Other.”
Doina Ruști
Doina Ruști, Mircea Cărtărescu, Ioana Nicolaie
Barcelona, 2014: Doina Ruști, Enrique Nogueras, Ramón Acín, Adina Mocanu
Roma: Doina Ruști, Petre Barbu
“The miracle of alterity should not be understood as the recovery of a primordial unity (as in Plato’s Symposium), but, as Lévinas also says, as the freedom to negate or absorb the Other without a definite purpose. The image of the Other is, first of all, an ideal mirroring that is destroyed at every moment, that is, as it expresses itself (kat’ at) and takes shape as a reference point in history; the human being finds a point of reference in the Other by speaking with them, that is, in a situation where fusion—of a mystical or affective kind—is excluded.”
Doina Ruști
Bacău — before the Ateneu Prize for the novel The Phanariot Manuscript. On the right: Doris Mironescu.
Doina Ruști with Chinese writers Du Lulu and Li Songzhang, EU-China Festival, Shenzhen
Doina Ruști, Manuel Rico, Madrid, after the Spanish launch of The Book of Perilous Dishes* (La Gata del Viernes).*
With poet Enrique Nogueras, Granada, UNESCO event during the launch of The Book of Perilous Dishes
Berlin: Jan Cornelius, Doina Ruști, Georg Aescht, Gabriela Adameșteanu
“Every desire is but a form of escape from the universe of the self. Lévinas likewise defines it as an aspiration turned into necessity: In need, I can bite into reality and satisfy myself by assimilating the other. In Desire, there is no biting into being, no satiety, only a future without markers. Fear, cold, hunger—in other words, all dependencies in relation to the world—ultimately confer independence upon the being that struggles, that enters into relation with someone willing or compelled to offer alterity; this struggle born of need removes the being from anonymous threat and reaffirms its desires within a framework of possibility.”
Doina Ruști
Chișinău: Doina Ruști, Dan Lungu, Emilian Galaicu-Păun
EU-China Festival: Doina Ruști,Zhang-Er
EU-China Festival: Doina Ruști, Li Songzhang
Turin: Roberto Merlo, Doina Ruști, Gianluca Veneziani
“The deep dream of the human being is to escape from the self, more precisely, from the fatality of returning into oneself, as someone once said. Yet alterity implies a confrontation that evolves from the feeling of being put on trial, to the loss of identity, and to the feeling generated by taking possession of the Other.”
Doina Ruști
MediaPro Pictures, 2007: Doina Ruști, Dan C. Mihăilescu
București, 2018: Dan C Mihăilescu, Doina Ruști, Mihaela Cârlan, Daniel Cristea Enache
FILIT: David Vann, Doina Ruști
Gaudeamus Book Fair: Doina Ruști, Ioan Groșan, Barbu Brezianu, Silvia Colfescu, 2004
Leipzig Book Fair: Doina Ruști, Filip Florian, Cătălin Mihuleac, Georg Aescht
Turin: Marco Dotti, Doina Ruști, Roberto Merlo
Rome: Doina Ruști with Mircea Cărtărescu and Horia-Roman Patapievici
“The consequences of any encounter belong to the sphere of evolution, a phenomenon studied in particular by modern psychoanalysis. Jung even states in this regard: The mutual approach of people brought about by such a community results in a psychic intimacy which, in turn, touches upon the personal instinctual sphere of human love and therefore conceals certain dangers within itself. I would add that the main danger lies, in Finkielkrautian terms, in the emotional adventure of a being preoccupied with exteriority. Affectively, the need for the Other turns into solidarity, into a euphoric participation in the Other’s joy, or, on the contrary, into egoism, or into an atrocious hatred toward the Other; both situations (adhesion and hatred) are natural manifestations of alterity.”
Doina Ruști
Humanitas: Doina Ruști with Luminița Corneanu, Eugen Negrici, Cătălin Ștefănescu
Sardinia, L’Isola delle Storie Festival: Doina Ruști, Roberto Merlo
Istanbul Book Fair: Doina Ruști with Carmen Mușat, Corina Sabău, Octavian Soviany
Madrid: Doina Ruști with Manuel Rico and Enrique Nogueras
“When I read Finkielkraut, I felt срод with him through a shared passion for small dramas, which define the collective attitude throughout historical time, but above all for the symbols that define the relationship between the individual and the community to which we genetically belong.”
Doina Ruști
Polirom: Doina Ruști, Eugen Negrici
Humanitas Sibiu: Doina Ruști with Andrei Terian and Dragoș Varga
Cărturești, 2017 — launch of The Book of Perilous Dishes: Doina Ruști with Marius Constantinescu and Ovidiu Șimonca
“The one who defines themselves as an individual set apart from others faithfully embodies the image of alterity as a closed bastion—thus all the more enticing, all the more seductive.”
Doina Ruști
Museum of Literature: Doina Ruști and Adriana Irimescu
National Theatre Bucharest: Doina Ruști, Alexandru Papadopol
Humanitas Cișmigiu: Doina Ruști with Paul Cernat, Cosmin Ciotloș, Bogdan Simion (Cobzarul)
Radio România Cultural: Doina Ruști with Ema Stere
“In his monumental work on magical medicine, I. A. Candrea explains that all the communities nestled within a nation are endowed with miraculous powers, sustained by the myth of the stranger; for instance, Germans believe that Jews can cast the evil eye, while for Romanians the Roma are thought to gather malevolent forces. In general, the nomadic population, without a stable territory, or the simple exiled being acquires special meanings; in Joyce’s novel Ulysses, the main character is Jewish—that is, an exile in his own homeland—because the message of the work subtly pleads for the liberation of Ireland. Likewise, Ion Budai-Deleanu, through the epic Țiganiada, creates a parable of an estranged Transylvania. What a waste, and what passion.”
Doina Ruști
Radio Guerrilla: Doina Ruști with Liviu Mihaiu, Andrei Ruse
National Library: Doina Ruști, Ioana Pârvulescu
TVR: Doina Ruști with Robert Șerban
National Theatre Bucharest, The Story of a Character: Doina Ruști and Adrian Titieni
Suțu Palace: Doina Ruști and Bogdan Simion (Cobzarul)
National Theatre Bucharest: Doina Ruști and her guest Bianca Burța-Cernat
“The stranger is the one compelled to identify themselves, but also the one who can enter the universe of the self—abusively (as an enemy) or through seduction (as a guest). The being’s chance of establishing a beneficial connection lies in receiving the Other in the name of a perfect hospitality. Thus one arrives at Derrida :)”
Doina Ruști
Ficțiunea Awards, Constanța, 2022: Doina Ruști, Radu Aldulescu
Bucharest, on the Dâmbovița riverbank: Doina Ruști and Roberto Merlo
National Theatre Bucharest: Doina Ruști and Ion Caramitru
Bookfest 2023: Doina Ruști, Camelia Văcaru, Ema Ilie
Cesianu Garden: Doina Ruști, Carmen Lidia Vidu
Cesianu Garden: Doina Ruști with Vasile Ernu and Adrian Majuru
Bookfest 2025: Doina Ruști with Lidia Bodea and Bogdan Stănescu
“Both the seducer and the parasite or the warrior are faces of alterity, toward which the individual should behave according to the laws of Greek hospitality—namely, with politeness, obligation, and caution.”
Doina Ruști
Radio România Cultural: Doina Ruști and Paul Cernat
Humanitas Galați: Doina Ruști, Andrei Velea
Museum of Romanian Literature: Doina Ruști, Ioan Groșan
Media University: Doina Ruști, Răzvan Țupa, 2007
Cesianu Garden: Doina Ruști, Roxana Dumitrache and Lucian Mîndruță
“In Derrida’s view, the Other becomes hostile insofar as they are treated as an offender who enters illegally into the territory of ipseity. The stranger is perceived as a threat, especially because they carry with them the phantasm of the intimate dwelling—the mother tongue.”
Doina Ruști
Romanian Embassy, Paris: Doina Ruști, Florica Courriol
Museum of Romanian Literature: Doina Ruști, Radu Paraschivescu
Museum of Romanian Literature: Doina Ruști and Bogdan Simion (Cobzarul), before the launch of the novel Zavaidoc in the Year of Love
“The stranger, Derrida said, signals his drama, and through this becomes a clearly defined symbol of alterity; the stranger is the Other canonized, defined as a singular individual and placed in the position of a guest. Both as a theme and as a symbolic archetype, the stranger constitutes a frequent figure of indisputable alterity in literature as well. A divine messenger or an ancestor returned to their origins, any stranger arouses interest as an unknown being and a potential bearer of essential mysteries. The unknown that appears unexpectedly is both seductive and dangerous in equal measure. Every encounter, even with old friends, implies a confrontation, an adventure.”
Doina Ruști
See also
Writer photo gallery
