Dictee

Book excerpt: Newly restored, this version of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s masterpiece honors the author's original intentions and vision for the book. Originally published in 1982, Dictee is a classic of modern Asian American literature. Dictee is the best-known work of the multidisciplinary Korean American artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. This restored edition, produced in partnership with the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), reflects Cha’s original vision for the book as an art object in its authentic form, featuring: The original cover High-quality reproductions of the interior layout Dictee tells 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. This dynamic autobiography: Structures the story in nine parts around the Greek Muses Deploys a variety of texts, documents, images, and forms of address and inquiry Links the women’s stories to explore the trauma of dislocation and the fragmentation of memory it causes The result is an enduringly powerful, beautiful, unparalleled work.