46 pages • 1 hour read
Dictee
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Introduction-Chapter 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Introduction Summary
The Introduction begins with a paragraph in French. It is translated into English in the paragraph underneath. The paragraph describes an interaction at a dinner, with every pause, comma, and punctuation mark noted. The paragraph describes an unnamed “She” who, when asked about her “first day,” answers elliptically that someone “[f]rom afar” (1) arrived.
Chapter 1 Summary: “Diseuse”
The chapter “Diseuse” describes the same pained attempt to communicate as represented in the Introduction. Gesture, movement, and action are described, but the speaker cannot gather the will to speak. There is a pause, and she nearly speaks but cannot bring herself to do so, and the moment passes. A feeling of pressure builds in her skull, and she contemplates that her speaking is a kind of offering but also a recitation: She does not feel like the words that she uses belong to her. A muse is invoked, and the muse is asked to tell a story. A list of translations from French to English appear in a list, with most of them being commands or requests. The translations are presented like a homework assignment. Another call to a muse appears. The speaker describes attending a Palm Sunday church service. The speaker self-consciously walks down the aisle of the church to receive communion.
A list of unrelated English phrases to translate into French appear in the form of another homework assignment. Some discuss religion, specifically Catholicism, one discusses the history of France, and another describes a trip to England. The speaker mentions fabricating sins to tell the priest in the confessional, and then has a question and answer about God. She describes the ritual of mass and the novena of the Immaculate Conception. The chapter ends with a poem called “From A Far,” recalling the first paragraph of the book, which repeats the phrase “what” and then a variety of ways of categorizing people: by nationality, ancestry, denomination, gender, and beliefs.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Clio History”
This chapter begins with an uncaptioned photograph and a description of the birth and death dates of Yu Guan Soon, a patriot in the Korean Independence movement of the early-20th century. There is a page of calligraphy with no translation. The concept of time and its relationship to history is discussed: There is a woman who “makes complete her duration […] rendered incessant, obsessive myth, rendered immortal” (28). The Japanese occupation of Korea in the early-20th century plays a key part in this section, with reference to the many ordinances that Japanese government imposed on Korea. The ordinances include new laws about trivial matters, such as hairstyles, dress, and court hierarchies, as well as ordinances changing essential aspects of life in Korea, including changing the national language to Japanese.
The focus shifts to the tragic life of Yu Guan Soon, the young woman pictured at the beginning of the chapter. The chapter includes quotes from her diary. Cha states that the purpose of bringing up the past is to avoid future tragedies, to not “repeat history in oblivion” (33). A petition from the Korean people of Hawaii to President Theodore Roosevelt describes the situation in Korea during the early-20th century that led to the Japanese occupation of Korea. The author describes the arrest and death of Yu Guan Soon during the March 1, 1919 protests of the Korean people against Japan. The relationship between time, history, and martyrdom is then described, with Yu Guan Soon’s photograph evoking “not the hallowed beauty, beauty from seasonal decay, evokes not the inevitable, not death, but the dy-ing” (37). This text is provided in handwritten form, with scratch-outs and edits, on the final page of the chapter. A photograph of people who are about to be executed is included.
Introduction-Chapter 2 Analysis
The style of the “Diseuse” chapter mimics the sensation of being in an unfamiliar place. The fits and starts of speech when the narrator is learning a new language create an atmosphere of instability. Cha is forcing the reader to contemplate their own relationship to language by putting them in a position of non-authority in relation to the text. This method of expression reinforces how identity, language, and memory mold people’s individual experiences and collective beliefs. Cha exposes the fraught relationship between identity and language through ambiguous textual and visual representations that Cha does not demystify for the reader. Cha does not want to smooth over the questions, uncertainties, and dead-ends that her difficult subject matter inspires; she wants to illuminate the subjects she is grappling with so that the reader can engage with them.
The title, “Diseuse,” refers to a woman who is a professional reciter (“diseuse.” Merriam-Webster). The book title, Dictee, is a French word for “dictation.” It refers to a series of notoriously difficult examinations in French schools that demonstrate mastery of the language; students dread and fear these exams. Cha explores this relationship to language as an instrument of power through the portions of the text that include commands to translate the text into English and French. This reveals the relationship between language and authority: Cha captures the nerve-wracking anxiety about speaking in front of others due to the fear of using language incorrectly.
The speaker’s identity is connected to Cha’s youth growing up as a Korean immigrant in America: Contrary to the notion of the professional reciter as eloquent and gifted, the diseuse here stammers in an unfamiliar language. Cha ironizes the concept of the eloquent, masterful orator or rhetorician: In the spirit of her mission to give voice to the untold stories of oppressed and silenced people, the speaker does not begin in a position of authority; instead, she starts from a powerless position of alienation and exile. The narrator (who is never directly named as Cha but shares many biographical details with her) transforms as she develops a form of language that feels true to herself, which builds her confidence. The fear and anxiety reveal language as a form of discipline, specifically language in educational, religious, institutional, and authoritative settings.
The educational setting in the first chapter is a religious school in the Christian faith, and the speaker’s sense of being controlled, disciplined, and rendered less individualistic is expressed in the speaker’s view of religion. The rituals require a sense of order: “Stand not too quickly the stations looking down at the red of the carpet hand placed on triangle white fake lace scarf not to slip from the head, the head of hair the sin covered” (13). Religion is also connected to language. In a question and answer in which the speaker gives responses to religious questions, the speaker is asked, “Who made thee” and responds “God made me. To conspire in God’s tongue” (17). The speaker demonstrates that her words are not her own. Many other voices occupy her, and she cannot separate her individual voice from those of others. However, Cha uses visual and literary techniques that break the monotony and inauthenticity of official language to present a new way of communicating that honors the lived experiences of people.
Cha uses avant-garde and post-modern literary techniques that force the reader into a greater intimacy with the subject matter of the text. The speaker considers the pain of not speaking as lesser than the pain of speaking. The pain of speaking is located in the fear of misunderstanding, or even the inevitability of misunderstanding. Cha spoke English, French, and Korean, and she includes all three languages in the book. The choice to include untranslated text emphasizes the incommensurability of language: Something is inevitably lost in translation between different languages, cultures, and time periods. There is also calligraphy with no translation or explanation surrounding it. The reader directly confronts their own lack of understanding, and a sense of mystery pervades the book.
This is achieved not only through the inclusion of untranslated words but also through the inclusion of images without captions, such as the photo of Yu Guan Soon (24). Cha presents the tragic story of Soon’s short life in “Clio History” as part of the larger historical forces at play in the early-20th century. A treaty was made between Japan and Korea with Japan offering protection to Korea in exchange for the ability to use Korea as a base for military operations during the war with Russia. However, the Japanese government never left Korea and instead took over the country and instituted laws that exploited the citizens of Korea.
Responding to this history, Cha bemoans the fact that the account she has offered of the occupation of Korea by Japan will be perceived as yet another “account about (one more) distant land, without any discernible features” (33). Cha is laying out her vision for the book, which is to excavate complex, difficult histories and render them living and breathing through portraits of individual women. Cha’s purpose is to explore experiences of trauma, exile, martyrdom, and other forms of political and personal rupture, avoiding any distancing mechanisms that allow one to view the past as separate from the present situation. However, the interventions that Cha is making through her artistic productions open new possibilities for the future that do not recapitulate these violent dynamics.
Uncaptioned photos force the reader to engage with the images directly, without the mediation of text that immediately describes or categorizes the photo. Cha includes an uncaptioned photograph of people about to be executed beside the quote: “the memory is the entire. the longing in the face of the lost” (38). The juxtaposition of enigmatic text alongside uncaptioned photographs calls for the reader to engage with the images first emotionally and then intellectually, prioritizing the reader becoming emotionally involved in the tragedy in a more personal manner.
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