Lioara Coturbaş - Diary Pages in The Forbidden Forest. Mircea Eliade’s Detention in Miercurea Ciuc
(pag. 67-76)
The novel The Forbidden Forest comprises the main themes in Mircea Eliade’s literature, but at the same time it may be considered an attempt of re-writing the author’s past. The exiled Mircea Eliade, haunted by the shadows of his former political beliefs, wants to renounce his old identity and to build up a new existence outside Romania. He lends his main character, his alter ego Ştefan Viziru, the key moments of his biography; one of the most significant episodes concerning the concealment of his political convictions is represented by the incarceration in the legionary camp in Miercurea Ciuc. If in Memoirs Mircea Eliade does not insist on this fragment of his past, he chooses to reveal the ordeal he went through by means of this work of fiction, thus trying to emphasize the main character’s and implicitly his own apolitical attitude. Ştefan Viziru eludes any political involvement and is unfairly condemned, exactly as Mircea Eliade used to claim. If the character may even be considered a victim of history, Mircea Eliade’s interest in the Legionary Movement cannot be completely overlooked. Even if we disapprove of the articles written in favor or the Iron Guard, in interpreting them we must take into consideration the fact that Mircea Eliade was drawn to the mysticism of this Movement, whose leader advocated the spiritual revolution which can be accomplished only by the new man, about whom Mircea Eliade had written on countless occasions.