Seo-Young Chu's Blog
November 9, 2021
an attempt to make Dictee (1982) by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha more legible and accessible to readers who are blind and vision impaired
What follows is not exactly a review. It’s an attempt to make
Dictee (1982) by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha more legible and accessible to readers who are blind and vision impaired.
I’ve been composing image descriptions of the visual images in Dictee.
I’m sharing the IDs here in case others might find them helpful.
In writing these IDs, I’ve tried to preserve the “captionlessness” of the original. The point here is not to explain the pictures but to make Dictee more accessible to readers who are blind and visually impaired.
(I realize that, in trying to make DICTEE’s captionless images legible/accessible, I’ve inevitably “mistranslated” the original. Its captionlessness is lost in translation despite my efforts to preserve it.)
The descriptions below are arranged in consecutive order by location in the book— from the front cover and other paratextual front matter to endpaper-ish back matter.
[ID: Front cover of Dictee, 2001 UC Press paperback, featuring a photo of a young Korean woman looking at the camera. “DICTEE” is in orange and all caps under “Theresa Hak Kyung Cha” in white. Blurb on front cover: “Dictée enlarges the notion of what a book is…because it is ephemeral, fragile, fierce, and indelible, because it is subversive, because it yearns and is luminous.”—Carole Maso, Spin]
[ID: Where one might expect a half-title page there is instead a black-and-white landscape photo (approx. 3x5 in.) occupying the center of a page that’s otherwise black. The landscape is rocky. It features odd ruins, patchy vegetation, and no people. Because the photo is black-and-white, the sky could be either cloudlessly blue or completely gray.]
[Frontispiece (verso): High-contrast black-and-white picture of a dark surface etched with Hangul letters: “어머니 보고싶어. 배가고파요. 고향에 가고싶다.”]
[Page 24 (verso): Grainy black-and-white head-and-shoulders photo of a Korean girl. Her face appears to be expressionless. She seems to be wearing white hanbok.]
[Page 26 (verso): Calligraphic image of the Chinese character “女” in thick black strokes surrounded by blank white space.]
[Page 27 (recto): Calligraphic image of the Chinese character “男” in thick black strokes surrounded by blank white space.]
[Page 39 (recto): Black-and-white photo of nine human figures standing outside on a field against a hilly backdrop. The three rightmost figures are blindfolded. Their ankles are bound by rope, their arms outstretched. The other figures seem to be watching and waiting motionlessly.]
[Pages 40 (verso) to 41 (recto): Image of what looks like a handwritten draft sprawled across two pages and divided by the fold (indicated by “|”) between verso and recto. “/“ indicates line breaks. While much of the text is crossed out, most of it is legible: “Some will not know age.|age. Time stops. Time will/stop for some. For them|ecially. Eternal time. No age./(strikethrough)no deterioration.(end strikethrough) Time fix|for some. (Strikethrough)In their view/On their countenance (end strikethrough) Their image, (words crossed out) the memory|them./the hallowed beauty that|(word crossed out) evidence/captured (strikethrough)only that connects (end strikethrough)/standing before hallowed beau|(words crossed out) Beauty, (strikethrough) because of the (end strikethrough)/ only because/ (strikethrough) loss, the absence, (end strikethrough) the (strikethrough) presen(end strikethrough)|ject (strikethrough) presents (end strikethrough) exposes the loss, the/ missing (words crossed out) left to the|imaginary. Evokes not the/ Their countenance evokes | (word crossed out) the beauty (strikethrough) weathering (end strikethrough), the decay/hallowed beauty from the/the inevitable^not death, but the dy-ing./ (strikethrough) standing before hallowed beau| The beauty, only because/that is (end strikethrough) / standing face to face with the|(strikethrough) mory (end strikethrough) memory of It misses. it’s/missing. still. What of time. | not more. remains there./ misses nothing. Time, that is| all else. all things else./ all (word crossed out) things other. Subject | time. Must answer to time./ Time dictates all else, except^|some. It misses. All installed in time,]
[Page 44 (verso): Black-and-white photo of a young Korean woman looking at the camera. She wears a dark jacket. The portrait is half-length but her hands are not shown. The background appears to be geometric patterned wallpaper.]
[Page 54 (verso): Calligraphic image of the Chinese character “父” in thick black strokes surrounded by blank white space.]
[Page 55 (recto): Calligraphic image of the Chinese character “母” in thick black strokes surrounded by blank white space.]
[Page 59 (recto): Black-and-white photo of a Korean woman with hair pulled back and face turned slightly away from the camera. She seems to be wearing white hanbok. The photo is visibly creased and scratched.]
[Page 63 (recto): Two humanoid shapes diagrammed and annotated in white on black paper together form an intricate acupuncture chart resembling busy constellations of stars in a night sky.]
[Page 74 (verso): Four black-and-white anatomical diagrams illustrate and name—in English—various parts of the human vocal apparatus, including larynx, trachea, lungs, hyoid bone, glottis.]
[Page 78 (verso): In this black-and-white English-language map of the Korean Peninsula, the DMZ divides Korea into North Korea and South Korea, and the Peninsula is surrounded by the “Yellow Sea” (west), “People’s Republic of China” (north), and “Sea of Japan” (east).]
[Page 93 (recto): In this blurry black-and-white photo, a long-haired woman —not Korean—stands before a brick wall alongside what looks like vegetation. She wears a long dress covering almost her entire body .]
[Pages 95-118 feature many conspicuous blank spaces or visible silences that vary in size, length, volume. Most of page 97, for example, is dominated by a blank white space approximately 4.5 inches x 5.5 inches in size.]
[Page 119 (recto): This black-and-white photo portrays the tilted head and shoulders of a person, not of Korean descent, with a shorn scalp, slightly parted lips, and eyes that seem to be staring at something beyond the camera.]
[Page 122 (verso): A blurry black-and-white photo of a crowd of Korean people, young and old alike, facing one direction, most or all of them dressed in white, some of them visibly aggrieved, one in the foreground clearly shouting.]
[Page 134 (verso): The ghostly pale gray shape of a left human hand appears on a mostly darker surface that seems damaged, roughly textured, porous, cracked.]
[Page 135 (recto): A completely blank white page.]
[Page 138 (verso): A faded picture of a figure—not Korean—who seems to be mid-stride and wearing a white toga.]
[Page 142 (verso): Image of a typewritten letter with the following text: “Holyoke, Apr. 22, 1915. Mrs. Laura Claxton,/ 53 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, N.Y. / Dear Madam:—/ Noticing a postal card addressed to Mr. Reardon with your name signed to same and having been living in the same apartment with him, I thought I would let you know that Mr. Reardon has not been living here since last July. / The last time I heard from him he was in Chicago, doing Cabaret work and shortly after was taken sick. / Of late I have not heard anything from him and cannot advise you of his present address. I might also state that Mr. Reardon’s mother removed to Hartford about three months ago. / I shall keep your address in case I hear from him and will be pleased to advise you if you so desire. / Trusting this will be acceptable and hoping to hear from you I remain, / Very sincerely, (illegible handwritten signature followed by the handwritten words ‘173 Main St.’)”]
[Page 146 (verso): Image of handwritten letter in cursive on lined paper: “Aug-16192/ Laura Claxton/Dear Madam I will write in regards to your sister she in an awful shape / she threatens to kill her self and her children and husband has done all they can possibly do and spend every sent to dr her they can get and they are having a time. She is afraid of going crazy. No dr can do her any good she has been to them all and none do any good”]
[Page 147 (recto): Handwritten letter, continued: “at all but she won’t give up goes all the time to them she spends all the money to dr instead of to get her something to eat and she is afraid to eat. The drs say it will just take time all she wants to do is ride the roads and these horses are all old and wore out and very near dead from hauling her on the road all the money you send sure does help out they are all broke and don’t know what to do”]
[Page 148 (verso): Handwritten letter, continued: “you write often to her as your letters cheer her up she has no fall hat she said she would get her something to eat with the x you sent her she likes grape fruit and light bread that is about all she will eat/ yours truly/ a friend”]
[Page 154 (verso): Calligraphic images of the following Chinese characters listed vertically from 1 to 10: 1.太極/ 2. 兩儀/ 3.三才/ 4.四 象/ 5.五行/ 6. 六合/ 7.七星/ 8.八卦/ 9.九子連環/ 10.重圓]
[Page 166 (verso): Black-and-white landscape photo in which two vaguely humanoid relics or ruins of indeterminate size and material stand near what might be pieces of driftwood on what looks like a gently sloping hill or dune. Because the photo is black-and-white, the sky could be either cloudlessly blue or completely gray.]
[Back endpaper-ish/end matter: Verso: A 3x3-inch grainy high-contrast black-and-white reproduction of a photo showing seven or so Korean girls wearing hanboks. The image is located in the middle of a page that is otherwise completely black. Recto: This page is completely black.]
Dictee (1982) by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha more legible and accessible to readers who are blind and vision impaired.I’ve been composing image descriptions of the visual images in Dictee.
I’m sharing the IDs here in case others might find them helpful.
In writing these IDs, I’ve tried to preserve the “captionlessness” of the original. The point here is not to explain the pictures but to make Dictee more accessible to readers who are blind and visually impaired.
(I realize that, in trying to make DICTEE’s captionless images legible/accessible, I’ve inevitably “mistranslated” the original. Its captionlessness is lost in translation despite my efforts to preserve it.)
The descriptions below are arranged in consecutive order by location in the book— from the front cover and other paratextual front matter to endpaper-ish back matter.
[ID: Front cover of Dictee, 2001 UC Press paperback, featuring a photo of a young Korean woman looking at the camera. “DICTEE” is in orange and all caps under “Theresa Hak Kyung Cha” in white. Blurb on front cover: “Dictée enlarges the notion of what a book is…because it is ephemeral, fragile, fierce, and indelible, because it is subversive, because it yearns and is luminous.”—Carole Maso, Spin]
[ID: Where one might expect a half-title page there is instead a black-and-white landscape photo (approx. 3x5 in.) occupying the center of a page that’s otherwise black. The landscape is rocky. It features odd ruins, patchy vegetation, and no people. Because the photo is black-and-white, the sky could be either cloudlessly blue or completely gray.]
[Frontispiece (verso): High-contrast black-and-white picture of a dark surface etched with Hangul letters: “어머니 보고싶어. 배가고파요. 고향에 가고싶다.”]
[Page 24 (verso): Grainy black-and-white head-and-shoulders photo of a Korean girl. Her face appears to be expressionless. She seems to be wearing white hanbok.]
[Page 26 (verso): Calligraphic image of the Chinese character “女” in thick black strokes surrounded by blank white space.]
[Page 27 (recto): Calligraphic image of the Chinese character “男” in thick black strokes surrounded by blank white space.]
[Page 39 (recto): Black-and-white photo of nine human figures standing outside on a field against a hilly backdrop. The three rightmost figures are blindfolded. Their ankles are bound by rope, their arms outstretched. The other figures seem to be watching and waiting motionlessly.]
[Pages 40 (verso) to 41 (recto): Image of what looks like a handwritten draft sprawled across two pages and divided by the fold (indicated by “|”) between verso and recto. “/“ indicates line breaks. While much of the text is crossed out, most of it is legible: “Some will not know age.|age. Time stops. Time will/stop for some. For them|ecially. Eternal time. No age./(strikethrough)no deterioration.(end strikethrough) Time fix|for some. (Strikethrough)In their view/On their countenance (end strikethrough) Their image, (words crossed out) the memory|them./the hallowed beauty that|(word crossed out) evidence/captured (strikethrough)only that connects (end strikethrough)/standing before hallowed beau|(words crossed out) Beauty, (strikethrough) because of the (end strikethrough)/ only because/ (strikethrough) loss, the absence, (end strikethrough) the (strikethrough) presen(end strikethrough)|ject (strikethrough) presents (end strikethrough) exposes the loss, the/ missing (words crossed out) left to the|imaginary. Evokes not the/ Their countenance evokes | (word crossed out) the beauty (strikethrough) weathering (end strikethrough), the decay/hallowed beauty from the/the inevitable^not death, but the dy-ing./ (strikethrough) standing before hallowed beau| The beauty, only because/that is (end strikethrough) / standing face to face with the|(strikethrough) mory (end strikethrough) memory of It misses. it’s/missing. still. What of time. | not more. remains there./ misses nothing. Time, that is| all else. all things else./ all (word crossed out) things other. Subject | time. Must answer to time./ Time dictates all else, except^|some. It misses. All installed in time,]
[Page 44 (verso): Black-and-white photo of a young Korean woman looking at the camera. She wears a dark jacket. The portrait is half-length but her hands are not shown. The background appears to be geometric patterned wallpaper.]
[Page 54 (verso): Calligraphic image of the Chinese character “父” in thick black strokes surrounded by blank white space.]
[Page 55 (recto): Calligraphic image of the Chinese character “母” in thick black strokes surrounded by blank white space.]
[Page 59 (recto): Black-and-white photo of a Korean woman with hair pulled back and face turned slightly away from the camera. She seems to be wearing white hanbok. The photo is visibly creased and scratched.]
[Page 63 (recto): Two humanoid shapes diagrammed and annotated in white on black paper together form an intricate acupuncture chart resembling busy constellations of stars in a night sky.]
[Page 74 (verso): Four black-and-white anatomical diagrams illustrate and name—in English—various parts of the human vocal apparatus, including larynx, trachea, lungs, hyoid bone, glottis.]
[Page 78 (verso): In this black-and-white English-language map of the Korean Peninsula, the DMZ divides Korea into North Korea and South Korea, and the Peninsula is surrounded by the “Yellow Sea” (west), “People’s Republic of China” (north), and “Sea of Japan” (east).]
[Page 93 (recto): In this blurry black-and-white photo, a long-haired woman —not Korean—stands before a brick wall alongside what looks like vegetation. She wears a long dress covering almost her entire body .]
[Pages 95-118 feature many conspicuous blank spaces or visible silences that vary in size, length, volume. Most of page 97, for example, is dominated by a blank white space approximately 4.5 inches x 5.5 inches in size.]
[Page 119 (recto): This black-and-white photo portrays the tilted head and shoulders of a person, not of Korean descent, with a shorn scalp, slightly parted lips, and eyes that seem to be staring at something beyond the camera.]
[Page 122 (verso): A blurry black-and-white photo of a crowd of Korean people, young and old alike, facing one direction, most or all of them dressed in white, some of them visibly aggrieved, one in the foreground clearly shouting.]
[Page 134 (verso): The ghostly pale gray shape of a left human hand appears on a mostly darker surface that seems damaged, roughly textured, porous, cracked.]
[Page 135 (recto): A completely blank white page.]
[Page 138 (verso): A faded picture of a figure—not Korean—who seems to be mid-stride and wearing a white toga.]
[Page 142 (verso): Image of a typewritten letter with the following text: “Holyoke, Apr. 22, 1915. Mrs. Laura Claxton,/ 53 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, N.Y. / Dear Madam:—/ Noticing a postal card addressed to Mr. Reardon with your name signed to same and having been living in the same apartment with him, I thought I would let you know that Mr. Reardon has not been living here since last July. / The last time I heard from him he was in Chicago, doing Cabaret work and shortly after was taken sick. / Of late I have not heard anything from him and cannot advise you of his present address. I might also state that Mr. Reardon’s mother removed to Hartford about three months ago. / I shall keep your address in case I hear from him and will be pleased to advise you if you so desire. / Trusting this will be acceptable and hoping to hear from you I remain, / Very sincerely, (illegible handwritten signature followed by the handwritten words ‘173 Main St.’)”]
[Page 146 (verso): Image of handwritten letter in cursive on lined paper: “Aug-16192/ Laura Claxton/Dear Madam I will write in regards to your sister she in an awful shape / she threatens to kill her self and her children and husband has done all they can possibly do and spend every sent to dr her they can get and they are having a time. She is afraid of going crazy. No dr can do her any good she has been to them all and none do any good”]
[Page 147 (recto): Handwritten letter, continued: “at all but she won’t give up goes all the time to them she spends all the money to dr instead of to get her something to eat and she is afraid to eat. The drs say it will just take time all she wants to do is ride the roads and these horses are all old and wore out and very near dead from hauling her on the road all the money you send sure does help out they are all broke and don’t know what to do”]
[Page 148 (verso): Handwritten letter, continued: “you write often to her as your letters cheer her up she has no fall hat she said she would get her something to eat with the x you sent her she likes grape fruit and light bread that is about all she will eat/ yours truly/ a friend”]
[Page 154 (verso): Calligraphic images of the following Chinese characters listed vertically from 1 to 10: 1.太極/ 2. 兩儀/ 3.三才/ 4.四 象/ 5.五行/ 6. 六合/ 7.七星/ 8.八卦/ 9.九子連環/ 10.重圓]
[Page 166 (verso): Black-and-white landscape photo in which two vaguely humanoid relics or ruins of indeterminate size and material stand near what might be pieces of driftwood on what looks like a gently sloping hill or dune. Because the photo is black-and-white, the sky could be either cloudlessly blue or completely gray.]
[Back endpaper-ish/end matter: Verso: A 3x3-inch grainy high-contrast black-and-white reproduction of a photo showing seven or so Korean girls wearing hanboks. The image is located in the middle of a page that is otherwise completely black. Recto: This page is completely black.]
