In Introduction to a Rhizome the authors define a rhizome as capable of “connecting any point with any other point, and its features are not necessarily linked to features of the same nature; it brings into play very different regimes of signs, and even states without sign”. (21) They apply this idea to literature and language and, in the process, deconstruct widely accepted ideas on both topics.
At the beginning of the chapter, the authors declare: “…there is no language in itself, nor linguistic universals, only a multitude of dialects, patois, slangs, and specialized languages.” (7) Since the capacity for language is something we are born with, then no beginning or ending can be attributed to language that would make it a perfect example of a rhizome. According to the authors, rhizomes lack beginnings or endings and have the ability to connect ideas and objects that seemingly have no connection, no common denominator, so to speak. Language does exactly that.
When you take a group that speaks one language and another that speaks a different language, to communicate, they create a pidgin language. Pidgin is a very basic way of communicating, however when its offspring is born that pidgin language becomes a full language with its own rules and syntax etc. Much of what we think of as a Creole language is formed in this way.
Later in the essay the authors discuss American Literature and how it represents the idea of the Rhizome. Unlike other more homogeneous cultures, America is a salad bowl of people, culture and ideas. We are the land of immigrants from almost every continent, together with an indigenous population that managed to survive the bulk of the immigrants.
All of these seemingly disparate pieces have come together to form a national identity as “American,” but all the elements are different: different cultures, languages, religions. Since our country is so different, that difference would also find its way into our literature.
There is no single American identity that one can draw inspiration from, unlike English literature, there may be an English experience or a French experience in French literature or even a Japanese experience when it comes to Japan. Our American literature would draw on all those aspects of America: the cultures, the language, the foods to create an American identity that could be written about, this Americanness because it’s rhizomatic in its creation, as it takes these different ideas and turns them in our America, our literature.