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Reading Dictee what struck me most instantly was Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s upsetting of standard grammatical conventions and formal elements of style. One of the most embarrassing things about me is how much I love grammar and punctuation. So from the beginning of the text I was enamored. In Dictee’s introduction, Cha writes a scene of a person sitting down to dinner and being asked a question—simply that. Only she doesn’t dictate the image in a typical fashion, but replaces the punctuation with the word denoting it. In this way, the passage 

[ It was the first day. She had come from afar.  tonight at dinner, the families would ask, “How was the first day?” at least to say the least of it possible, the answer would be “there is but one thing. There is someone. From afar.”  ]

 is translated to

[Open paragraph It was the first day period She had come from a far period tonight at dinner comma the families would ask comma open quotation marks How was the first day interrogation mark close quotation marks at least to say the least of it possible comma the answer would be open quotation marks there is but one thing period There is someone period From a far period close quotation marks ] 

This effect is reworked and reimagined in many ways throughout the text. When considering this in relation to our project, I feel somewhat enlightened regarding the potential for discrepancy between the written version of a text, and a spoken one. If the altered quotation above were to be spoken aloud for an audience or over radio, the punctuation would be utterly lost. But as Cha points to with her original version the punctuation is actually paramount, and will not be ignored. She forces the reader (or listener) to confront the nature of the language head-on.

After reading Dictee I foresee myself trying to incorporate some aspect, or critique, or language/grammar/convention into my own piece. I’m curious about what other tactics could be explored as a means of teasing out the eccentricities of language as Cha does so brilliantly in her work.