Mediating a loss of history in Doina Rusti’s The Ghost in the Mill

Abstract

In her novel Fantoma din moara, or The Ghost in the Mill, and in her other prolific output, Doina Rusti has helped in the process of preserving history, specifically that of communist Romania. A village in the Romanian countryside, populated by people whose stories had been discounted, or never even told, acts as the perfect microcosm to isolate the Romanian identity while examining its multifaceted elements from disparate perspectives that all reify within the frame narrator. Rusti synchronously experiences both past and present, negating a traditional trajectory along a temporal axis. This is indicative of the act of remembering that is intricately tied to the mechanism of forgetting. Memories are brought into question and Rusti uses her novels to join the chorus of those solidifying the Romanian past, even if not always harmoniously. Rusti’s dependence on previously documented events that serve as parameters for her novel challenge the power that gives authority to authorship. She cannot freely create her narratives, but can only carefully navigate the restrictions of their respective situations. Defining a culture and its people is no small task, but as the book closes, Rusti unapologetically paints an unromanticized picture producing a sophisticated understanding of an entire nation as it turns to spirituality during very tumultuous times.