<i>Empires of the Mind</i> tells the story of I. A. Richards, Britain's foremost literary critic in the 1920s, and his effort to promote an 850-word version of "global" English in China. Examining the cultural milieu of Cambridge between the World Wars, where Richards's internationalist vision first arose, this book traces the heretofore-unexplored connections between Richards's literary theories and his political ideals. Richards's time in China covers a volatile period in Chinese history: the Japanese occupation, the Communist revolution, and the beginnings of the Cold War all feature prominently in the history of Basic English over a fifty-year period.<br>Koeneke considers Richards's project in the light of current theories about imperialism: Did Basic English anticipate today's multicultural aspirations for global exchange? Or did it advance new "empires of the mind" whose spoils are language and information? Ultimately, the history of Richards's time in China offers a crucial window onto the postcolonial complexities of our own.

Empires of the Mind: I. A. Richards and Basic English in China, 1929-1979

Literature & Fiction

Koeneke, Rodney

British & Irish

Stanford University Press

Poetry. Flarf. This is the author's second book of poems, after ROUGE STATE. "Rodney Koeneke's quick-paced, often hilarious, often vulgar juxtapositions are rude to understanding but courteous as a calling card to anyone who cares about the life of language. Assembled with delight, affection, and a connoisseur's ear for the latent pleasure of babble, MUSEE MECHANIQUE is a joyous record of the words in our head, c. 2006. I love this book."--Benjamin Friedlander. "The work shows us how it is now, with the nostalgia of the muse oddified by idiosyncratic clutter from Toothy to Tooth to Asteroids. Tell yourself the kaleidoscope is real--we are not being naturalized by pedestrian thoroughfares, rather by the dreamy transmissions of "ecriture for the flaneur/ in search for sexy subforms on the Proust list."--Cynthia Sailers.

Musee Mechanique

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Antiques & Collectibles

BlazeVOX Books

Poetry. Flarf. Rodney Koeneke was born in Omaha in 1968 and grew up in Tucson and Los Angeles, and has lived in or about San Francisco since 1986. His book of history, Empires of the Mind, which tells the story of the British literary critic I.A. Richards, is forthcoming from Stanford University Press. ROUGE STATE is his first full-length poetry collection. "In ROUGE STATE, Rodney Koeneke puts the blush back on the demotic. His idiomatic montage is a careening screed dictated from a state of alert, all puns intended to turn the hose back on a culture run literally amuck, and whose marquee reads: Raw, Red, Rouge, Incarnadine. Welcome to these states!"-- Michael Gizzi.

Rouge State

United States

Pavement Saw Press

"Melding images of natural timelessness with appearances from contemporary culture, Koeneke's collection is easily enjoyed by the well-seasoned bard and poetic neophyte alike."—BookslutEtruria is a diverse collection of poems featuring found language, ancient Latin, sitcom stars, even Marianne Moore, unified by a threading of ideas and meditations that span the ancient and contemporary.heart, build up your fire like a neighborgetting too drunk at spring's first barbecueRodney Koeneke is author of Musee Mechanique and Rouge State, winner of the Transcontinental Poetry Award, along with several chapbooks. He teaches at Portland State University.

Etruria

Poetry

Wave Books

History & Criticism

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Books by Koeneke, Rodney