Dictée

Dictee is the best-known work of the versatile and important artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951-1982). A classic work of autobiography that transcends the self, Dictee is the story of several women: the Korean revolutionary Yu Guan Soon, Joan of Arc, Demeter and Persephone, Cha's mother Hyung Soon Huo (a Korean born in Manchuria to first-generation Korean exiles), and Cha herself. The element that unites these women is suffering and the transcendence of suffering. The book is divided into nine parts structured around the Greek Muses. Cha deploys a variety of texts, documents, images, and forms of address and inquiry to explore issues of dislocation and the fragmentation of memory. The result is a work of power, complexity, and enduring beauty. A classic work of autobiography that transcends the self, Dictée is the story of several women: the Korean revolutionary Yu Guan Soon, Joan of Arc, Demeter and Persephone, Cha?s mother Hyung Soon Huo (a Korean born in Manchuria to first-generation Korean exiles), and Cha herself. The elements that unite these women are suffering and the transcendence of suffering. The book is divided into nine parts structured around the Greek Muses. Cha deploys a variety of texts, documents, images, and forms of address and inquiry to explore issues of dislocation and the fragmentation of memory. The result is a work of power, complexity, and enduring beauty Cover ......Page 1 Contents ......Page 5 CLIO / HISTORY ......Page 17 CALLIOPE / EPIC POETRY ......Page 27 URANIA / ASTRONOMY ......Page 36 MELPOMENE / TRAGEDY ......Page 44 ERATO / LOVE POETRY ......Page 51 ELITERE / LYRIC POETRY ......Page 67 THALIA / COMEDY ......Page 75 TERPSICHORE / CHORAL DANCE ......Page 83 POLYMNIA / SACRED POETRY ......Page 89 Notes ......Page 97 Back Cover ......Page 98