Love as a contact zone in Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's Dictee (1982)
Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies, cilt.14, sa.2, ss.219-233, 2014 (Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 14 Sayı: 2
- Basım Tarihi: 2014
- Doi Numarası: 10.21866/esjeas.2014.14.2.004
- Dergi Adı: Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Scopus
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.219-233
- Anahtar Kelimeler: Contact zone, Dictee, Feminism, Love, Nationalism, Theresa hak kyung cha
- Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
In Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's (1951-1982) fragmented, multi-lingual, and non-linear novel Dictee, love is a contact zone that brings together Korean, French, Greek, and unidentified female characters who are silenced and oppressed in patriarchal societies. By connecting fictional and historical women across time and space, the novel shows how love serves as a political tool that endorses patriarchal, religious, and nationalist ideologies: Patriotic love connects French and Korean national heroines Yu Guan Soon and Joan of Arc; the French Saint Thérèse's unconditional love for Jesus is juxtaposed with an unnamed wife's slave-like position in marriage; and maternal love brings together an unnamed Korean mother and her Korean-American daughter with the Greek goddesses Persephone and Demeter. The novel shows how female sexual desire has been repressed and domesticated as women channel their love towards their nation, family, and Christ.