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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What grade does Mother teach?

2. In "Melpomene: Tragedy," what color are the soldiers' uniforms?

3. What does the narrator bite in "Urania: Astronomy"?

4. What year did Yu Guan Soon die?

5. Which of the following is NOT a phrase the narrator in "Urania: Astronomy" uses to describe failed attempts at speech?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Mother's MAH-UHM? Where is it trapped?

2. Discuss the significance of Mary in the "Opening." When does she appear? How is she important?

3. Discuss the significance of breath in "Urania: Astronomy."

4. Describe the way Cha treats soldiers in "Melpomene: Tragedy."

5. In "Urania: Astronomy," how do pages and punctuation relate to the focus on breath?

6. Discuss the significance of the image at the end of "Clio: History."

7. Why does Cha include the letter from the Koreans living in Hawaii to the President of the United States?

8. Discuss the break down in the translation exercise in the opening, particularly beginning with exercise number 5 in the second set of translations. Why does the grammar, tone, and voice shift?

9. Why does Cha include images of the circulatory system, the nervous system, and the respiratory system in in "Urania: Astronomy," a section dedicated to astronomy?

10. What is the significance of the italicized passages in the "Opening"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Memory plays a significant role throughout Cha's Dictee. In fact, it could be argued the work itself is an act of memory or perhaps a memorial of sorts. Explore the way memory shapes both form and content in this work. Is it a celebration of memory? Or perhaps a mourning of things and persons lost? Or is it perhaps both at once?

Essay Topic 2

Much of Cha's text deals with the experience of being a Korean-American woman in the period following the Korean War. How does she treat this experience? How does she comment on her place and/or reception within U.S. American culture? Is she nostalgic for Korea? Proud to be an American? Both? Support your answer with evidence from the text.

Essay Topic 3

Suffering is a significant motif throughout the work, emerging in forms as varied as personal struggles with self-expression to saintly martyrdom. In this work, suffering receives a complex and nuanced treatment. Analyze how the role suffering, in its various forms, is used in the work. Is suffering viewed as an unfortunate part of the human condition? Is there anything productive about the suffering in Cha's work? How are we to interpret Cha's decision to emphasize so many different types of suffering? What does this motif add to the work as a whole?

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