"Obsessive Myth:" Disturbing the Grammar of the Lyric and Epic in Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's "DICTEE"

Author

• Noelle (Nell) KriegelFollow

Date of Award

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

Committee Chair/Advisor

Dr. Erin Goss

Committee Member

Dr. Brian McGrath

Committee Member

Dr. Cameron Bushnell

Abstract

The archival text Dictée by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha spans many genres, making it a highly hybrid text. Cha uses personal letters, official government documents, images, prose, dictation exercises, translations, and poetry to create a composite identity of women neglected through history. Dictée’s hybrid form allows it to experiment with the lyric and epic traditions, challenging their forms to adequately reflect the lived experience of oppressed women. Dictée’s hybridity is but one aspect of its interrogation of literary form and language; the text also plays with grammar, specifically pronouns, to depict a genealogy of female voices as they relate to the nation. Through use of the muses, dictation exercises, objective pronouns, and a plural “I” and “you,” the text draws a relationship between hegemony, language, and identity formation. The text argues for an application of embodied linguistics and a revised grammar to reflect women’s histories. Dictée’s pronoun use as refractions of the lyric and epic traditions challenges normative, masculinized conceptions of voice by reimagining the relationship between history, language, and identity as a communal negotiation between diasporic and disenfranchised women.

Recommended Citation

Kriegel, Noelle (Nell), ""Obsessive Myth:" Disturbing the Grammar of the Lyric and Epic in Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's "DICTEE"" (2026). All Theses. 4677.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/4677