Wed 2 Apr, 5.30-7.30pm
This reading and discussion group will focus on Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, the multi-disciplinary poet, filmmaker, and artist, and her groundbreaking work Dictee (1982). Led by poet Jennifer Lee Tsai, currently an Artist in Residence at Bluecoat through the Wittenham Bursary, we will read and share our thoughts, ideas, and reflections on this powerful and innovative work in an inclusive, friendly, and encouraging space. All are welcome.
Free, booking required
Originally published in 1982, Dictee is a classic of modern Asian American literature, and 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 dynamic 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. The result is an enduringly powerful, beautiful, unparalleled work.
