Dictee

Intertextuality, or the relationship between different literary texts, is a prominent post-modernist literary technique that Cha uses throughout Dictee. How does Cha use intertextuality to explore exile and loss?

Religious and spiritual concepts are especially evident in the first chapter “Diseuse,” the quotations from St. Therese of Lisieux, and in the representation of Eastern spirituality in the final chapter. Explore Cha’s understanding of religion and spirituality and its relationship to power.

Language is presented as broken, split, and destabilizing, especially in the first half of Dictee. How does Cha use language to explore separation, alienation, and colonialism? How is language a force of oppression, and how can it serve as a force of resistance?