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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. In "Elitere: Lyric Poetry," what colors does the speaker describe in the sky?

2. According to the narrator of "Elitere: Lyric Poetry," when does the ink spill thickest?

3. How long has the young girl in "Polymnia: Sacred Poetry" been walking?

4. What will happen after the communion preparations in "Terpischore: Choral Dance"?

5. In "Elitere: Lyric Poetry," the narrator compares a person's first word to which of the following?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the wife's relationship with her husband in "Erato: Love Poetry."

2. Discuss the narrator's treatment of memory in "Elitere: Lyric Poetry."

3. Discuss the passage titled "Memory." Why does it receive a capitalized title?

4. What does the woman give to the young girl in "Polymnia: Sacred Poetry"?

5. Why does Cha include the second, handwritten, letter to Mrs. Laura Claxton?

6. Why is the young girl at the well in "Polymnia: Sacred Poetry"?

7. Describe the image at the opening of "Terpischore: Choral Dance."

8. Examine the camera directions which describe the woman's experience in the cinema in "Erato: Love Poetry."

9. How does speech relate to memory in "Elitere: Lyric Poetry"?

10. Describe the woman's feelings regarding the telephone in "Thalia: Comedy."

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Family plays a significant role in Cha's Dictee. Describe the way family members are linked throughout the work, then address the following questions. How does Cha treat family in this work? What role to family relations play in the narrator's decisions? How does the narrator perceive family? What does Cha's commentary about family appear to be?

Essay Topic 2

Displacement, as it relates to exile and immigrant identity, is a recurring theme throughout this work. Think, for example, about Cha's mother's spirit trapped in Korea or about the narrator's experience in returning to Korea eighteen years after the conflict. How does a sense of displacement inform the identities of the people in the work? Are they marked by it? Are their lives made empty by a sense of yearning? Or do they perceive displacement differently? How?

Essay Topic 3

Cha makes repeated allusions to the intervention of various outside forces in the politics and lives of the Korean people. Discuss Cha's commentary on imperialism and neo-imperialist policies. Does she seem to support international intervention in the so-called civil war in Korea? Does she wish assistance had arrived sooner? In Cha's work, how does the international involvement in the Korean War conflict compare to the Japanese occupation during and after World War II?

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