Russian journal of linguistics: Vestnik RUDN (Dec 2017)
RHIZOME AND DISCOURSE OF INTERMEDIALITY
Abstract
Rhizomaticity is a strategy and a regularity of text creation in a lot of modern commu-nicative discourse practices. What remains urgent is the problem of the systematic interdisciplinary de-scription of texts whose structure and language qualities are determined by the signs of the rhizome - a concept of post-modern philosophy introduced into the scientific field by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the psychotherapist Félix Guattari (Deleuze, Guattari 1996). The rhizome (Fr. rhizome - rootstock, tuber, bulb, mycelium) possesses the following qualities: it is non-linear, open and directed towards the unpredictability of discourse transformations through the possibilities of structure development in any direction; there is no centre or periphery in the rhizome, and any discourse element can become ‘a vital structure’ for text-creation. The rhizome does not have non-intersecting boundaries; and in the space of the rhizomatic discourse environment, an increase of reality facets takes place, non-standard associative con-nections appear, multiplication effects are formed, which create new meanings. Rhizomaticity is the quality of texts being organised by the laws of rhizomatic logic (V.F. Sharkov 2007), by the terms of which ‘su-perposition’ of discourses can take place, a transition from one semiotic system to another. The article makes an attempt to correlate the qualities of the rhizome with the signs of the intermedia discourse, which is built on the semiotic interaction of different media. The moving lines of the rhizome, its ‘branch-ing’ qualities can be found in poetic texts, in the evaluating segments of political discourse, in advertising discourse, in internet communications, which represent rhizomorphic environments. An analysis of examples from these spheres has shown that the rhizomatic approach opens new facets of intermediality. The author uses the methods of discourse analysis to prove that the openness and non-linearity of intermedial discourse, the movement along the multiple ways of creating sense, ensures unlimited possibilities for semiosis. The results of the research indicate that rhizome-analysis can become an important part of discourse analysis as a humanitarian project.
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