In 1982, the performance artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951−1982) published the autobiographical text Dictee.;Cha emigrated from South Korea with her family in 1961 because of the post-war military government's repressive policies under Syngman Rhee following the April 19 Movement (also called the April 19 Revolution). The book marks a culmination point of her attempts to come to terms with the history of both Koreas before, during, and after the war, as well as with Cha's migration to the United States.
Dictee constellates text fragments in several languages with photographs, movie stills, facsimile and calligraphy. Cha attempts to narrate not only her family history, but a history of Korea: its occupation, the war, and the continuous state of separation. Her own story is inextricably intertwined with these events. Any dates and facts simultaneously seem to enable and deeply compromise the narrating process, making it impossible to draw a clear line between history, autobiography, and fiction. Violence emanates from actual historical events recounted in the book and is reproduced in their predominant narratives, thus exposing the power of existing narrative structures and their silencing effects. Dictee uncompromisingly showcases the immense challenge of 'speaking up' against established structures. These structures, however, depend on being remembered, and Cha's voices struggle with memory. They give false accounts of historical events and thus claim a position that subversively contradicts hegemonic narratives. Throughout the book, Cha's voices remain in the conjunctive: "Semblance of speech. / Swallows. Inhales. Stutter. Starts. Stops before / starts." (Cha 2001: 75) Dictee does not (maybe: cannot) fully abolish these narratives; by infiltrating them with marginalized voices, however, it allows to question their structural superiority.
As if to correspond to this narratological setup, Dictee was ignored by literary criticism and scholarship for several years after publication. Criticism of the book finally commenced in the nineties. Since then, it allowed for a deeper understanding of Cha's work. What is more, the book continues to confront the reader with a rhetoric of marginalization - the impossibility to escape the grip of an overarching narrative without falling silent -, thus accentuating the need for a deeper discussion on this topic. This presentation intends to delve further into Dictee's rhetorical strategy. The proposed reading aims at focusing on historical context as well as focalization and medial interaction. With an analysis of Dictee's narratological and poetological implications, it hopes to offer a reading that helps to unearth the marginalized voices Dictee implies, thus further rendering them audible, and their (hi)stories – tellable.
