SOURCE: “Marguerite Duras: Sexual Difference and Tales of Apocalypse,” in The Modern Language Review, Vol. 84, No. 3, July, 1989, pp. 601-14.

In the following essay, Hill explores the function of repetition in Moderato cantabile.

Elle se promène encore. Elle voit de plus en plus précisément, clairement ce qu'elle veut voir. Ce qu'elle rebâtit, c'est la fin du monde.

(Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein)

A number of Duras's books are written indifferently as plays, film-scripts, or novels. In at least two of these texts, India Song and Détruire, dit-elle, there is an enigmatic passage: if these texts were to be staged in a theatre, declares a peremptory editorial voice, ‘il n'y aurait pas de répétition générale’.¹ This apparent distaste for dress rehearsals is strange, but revealing. Behind it lies a paradox. If no dress rehearsals may be allowed for these texts...