Summary Of Chah's Dictee

Dictee is a collection of different media and methods to recount human experiences, which demonstrates how past events are marked by non-linear personal events; while the study of history draws from some of these sources and ignores others to force the construction of a tidy explanation of the past void of personal feeling. Cha’s Dictee presents history in a personal manner contrary to the typical academic construction of history, forcing the reader to question the traditional construction of history. The novel follows the personal stories of oppressed women including Korean revolutionary Yu Guan Soon, Joan of Ark, Demeter, Persephone, Hyuang Soon Huo, the author’s Korean mother who was exiled to Manchuria, and Cha, the author herself. Dictee
The letter offers a very impersonal and unfeeling account of the oppression in Korea. Rather than discussing the experiences of those living in oppression, the letter focuses on the political climate and ramifications of the occupation, which is characteristic of typical academic history, and therefore void of personal details. The letter is from the Koreans of Hawaii, but offers very little insight into the experiences of these people. When describing the occupation, the most emotional the letter gets is when it claims that “to our disappointment and regret the Japanese Government has not done a single thing in the way of improving the condition of the Korean People… she turned loose several thousand rough and disorderly men of her nationals in Korea who are treating the inoffensive Koreans in the most outrageous manner.” “Rough” and “disorderly” are not enlightening adjectives, which do not address specific emotional experiences; they do not elaborate on the actions or the feelings of the people, but rather focus on the pure objective facts of the events. The feelings of the Koreans towards these Japanese occupies is described as disappointed and regretful, while emotions, these words signify a measured response that is still
The oppressive Japanese regime forced Koreans into a subordinate place by forcing them to speak Japanese, an entirely unfamiliar language. The struggle of succumbing to this oppression is seen in one woman as she is forced to “take on their punctuation… the weight begins from the uppermost back of her head pressing downward… she gasps from the pressure.” The verb “take on” implies a burden being forced onto the subject, something that must be dealt with painfully. This burden is more accurately labeled as a “weight” which is seen actively pressing on her body. The metaphor of the action of taking on a language as an pressure forcing the head downward, allows the reader to feel the pain of this oppression as he or she pictures a weight being forced through their own head. Furthermore, the verb “gasps” also suggests a drowning or suffocating feeling, implying suffocation by this oppression. While both the letter and the Disuse section of Dictee are describing effects of the same event, the personal account, which is left out by the traditional historical document, offers deeper insight and creates a stronger empathetic connection to the past