The back cover of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee describes the book as “A classic work of autobiography that transcends the self.” This phrase is self-contradictory. The Oxford English Dictionary defines autobiography as “an account of a person’s life given by himself or herself.” If it is indeed an autobiography, Dictee is unorthodox, because it discusses the accounts of several other people instead of focusing only on the author. Moreover, the variety of media in Dictee multiples the book’s unusualness