Dictee, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

Newly restored, this version of the multi-disclipinary artistTheresa Hak Kyung Cha honors the author's original intentions and vision for the book. Originally published in 1982, Dictee is a classic of modern Asian American literature.

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 autobiography structures the story in nine parts around the Greek Muses, deploys a variety of texts, documents, images, and forms of address and inquiry and links the women’s stories to explore the trauma of dislocation and the fragmentation of memory it causes.