Distance, Desire, and “Diseuse”: Conceptualizing Diasporic Identities in Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's Dictee

Abstract

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's Dictee conceptualizes a diasporic mode of identification in which there simultaneously exists nostalgic desire for home and the difficulty involved in this. In this essay, I examine the critically conscious processes of (dis)identifications which Cha engages in throughout her work. The tensions and ironies between the desire for and lack of identification serve to destabilize histories of violence, colonization, and imperialism. Cha's Dictee critically raises questions regarding diasporic identification for the Korean female and opens up possibilities of political subversion through the text and image. This essay reflects on coming to terms with how things are represented and our positions in the apparatus of legibility and visibility. Through the use of languages, photographs, maps, diagrams, and text, Cha explores the desire to identify the “missing traces’ and missing memories of those affected by immigration, exile, and war in Korea.