Duras, Marguerite - Leslie Hill (essay date 1989)

Leslie Hill (essay date 1989)

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...

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