Deterritorialization, becoming, and Identity Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through the Lens on Deleuzian theory

This paper presents a Deleuzian interpretation of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain in relation to Deleuze and Guattari's concepts of rhizome, deterritorialization, becoming, and Nomadic. The present research attempts to accomplish a re-reading of the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, specifically in the light of Gilles Deleuze's theoretical frame of mind centralized on the notions of rhizome, deterritorialization, becoming, and Nomadic. This central idea of becoming versus being grounds Deleuze's philosophical and critical approach toward every phenomenon, and particularly, discourse such as art, philosophy and literature. Like other post-structuralists, Deleuze believes that the major problem with the traditional Western thought since the time of Plato has been the essentiality of transcendentalism and concludes that this needs to be subverted. He accomplishes his theory by verifying the necessity of overcoming Platonism and thus, authorizing becoming. In fact, by deviating from an established origin or transcendental universe we ground the thought on the immanence of becoming. In this view, everything is just flowing in the flux of becoming- life. In contrast to other linear and moral readings of the novel, this paper examines the moral growth of Huckleberry Finn from a rhizome perspective where his becoming ethical transpires by lines of flight and away from territorialized and institutional moralities and conventional social formations. This paper makes important contributions to the field of American literary studies with respect to contextualizing Twain's Huckleberry Finn within a post-structuralist philosophy of difference and becoming.

Keywords:

Rhizome , Deterritorialization , Becoming , Identity , Nomadic