A Study of the Emergence of Rhizomsphere in Winslow’s In West Mills

Document Type : Research Article

Author

• Zahra Taheri

Department of English Language and Literature, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22067/lts.2022.75617.1116

Abstract

This article focuses on the ‘rhizosphere’ in Charles Winslow’s (2019) In West Mills. Deploying Deleuze and Guattari’s views as well as Foucault’s, this study discusses how the notions of ‘schizoid’, ‘nomad’, ‘deterritorialization’ and ‘re-territorialization’ can pave the way for the emergence of a new kind of literature known as ‘minority literature’. Furthermore, it is discussed how cultural geography can be redefined by challenging the oedipal mechanism of power and replacing it with an anti-oedipal ‘machine’. To this end, notions of ‘heterotopia’, ‘body without organs’ and ‘lines of flight’ have been discussed. It is argued that for Winslow to upset the hierarchical discourse of liberalism, first the arborescent (hierarchical) system of family, as liberalism’s first controlling agent, should be challenged. Afterward, other binary oppositions are unsettled. The outcome will be the replacement of the universal liberal system with ‘micropolitics’ and rhizomatic systems which can accomplish a truer version of democracy.

Keywords

• Rhizosphere
• In West Mills
• Heterotopias
• De'Shawn Charles Winslow
• Machine

20.1001.1.22285202.1402.56.1.3.4

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