Philosophical model of the connections present in an assemblage
This article is about a philosophical term. For its use in botany (i.e. arboraceous), seeWoody plant.
Arhizome is a concept inpost-structuralism describing anassemblage that allows connections between any of its constituent elements, regardless of any predefined ordering, structure, or entry point.[1][2][3] It is a central concept in the work of French TheoristsGilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, who use the term frequently in their development ofschizoanalysis.
Deleuze and Guattari use the terms "rhizome" and "rhizomatic" (from Ancient Greek ῥίζωμα (rhízōma)'mass of roots') to describe a network that "connects any point to any other point".[3] The term is first introduced in Deleuze and Guattari's 1975 bookKafka: Toward a Minor Literature to suggest that Kafka's work is not bound by linear narrative structure, and can be entered into at any point to map out connections with other points.[1][4]
The term is heavily expanded upon in Deleuze and Guattari's 1980 workA Thousand Plateaus, where it is used to refer to networks that establish "connections betweensemiotic chains, organizations of power, and circumstances relative to the arts, sciences and social struggles."[3]
An illustration of rhizome in opposition to arborescence from a 2006 exhibition of works inspired byA Thousand Plateaus at the Doris McCarthy Gallery. The red structure in the image is a tree, which presupposes a linear ordering over its elements that emanates from the root. The green structure in the image is a rhizome, which ceaselessly establishes connections across branches in the tree, without regard for the predefined order.[5]
Arborescent (French:arborescent) refers to the shape and structure of atree.A Thousand Plateaus introduces the concept of philosophical rhizome through a botanical metaphor, which contrasts the rhizomatic character ofunderground root systems to the naturally hierarchical ordering present in tree-structures.[4][2][3] "The tree is filiation, but the rhizome is alliance [...]. The tree imposes the verb 'to be,' but the fabric of the rhizome is the conjunction, 'and... and... and...'"[6]
InA Thousand Plateaus, Deleuze and Guattari write that "The rhizome itself assumes very diverse forms... but we get the feeling that we will convince no one unless we enumerate certain approximate characteristics."[3] These approximate characteristics are:
"1 and 2. Principles ofconnection and heterogeneity: any point of a rhizome can be connected to anything other, and must be. This is very different from the tree or root, which plots a point, fixes an order"
"3. Principle ofmultiplicity: it is only when the multiple is effectively treated as a substantive, "multiplicity," that it ceases to have any relation to the One as subject or object"
"4. Principle of asignifying rupture: against the oversignifying breaks separating structures or cutting across a single structure. A rhizome may be broken, shattered at a given spot, but it will start up again on one of its old lines, or on new lines"
"5 and 6. Principle of cartography anddecalcomania: a rhizome is not amenable to any structural or generative model. It is a stranger to any idea of genetic axis or deep structure."
^abYoung, Eugene; Genosko, Gary; Watson, Janell (2013-12-05).The Deleuze and Guattari Dicationary. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 171, 262.ISBN978-0826442765.
^abcAdkins, Brent (2015).Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus: A Critical Introduction and Guide. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 23, 76.ISBN9780748686469.
^abcdefDeleuze, Gilles; Guattari, Félix (1987) [1980].A Thousand Plateaus. Translated by Massumi, Brian. University of Minnesota Press. pp. 5, 7.ISBN0-8166-1402-4.
^abStivale, Charles (2005).Gilles Deleuze: Key Concepts. McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 150, 52.ISBN9781844652884.
^Deleuze, Gilles;Guattari, Félix (1 September 2004) [1987]. "Introduction: Rhizome".Thousand Plateaus. Continuum impacts. Translated byMassumi, Brian. London: A&C Black. p. 27.ISBN9780826476944. Retrieved10 November 2025.The tree is filiation, but the rhizome is alliance, uniquely alliance. The tree imposes the verb 'to be,' but the fabric of the rhizome is the conjunction, 'and... and... and...' This conjunction carries enough force to shake and uproot the verb 'to be'.
