Disassembly and Reassembly: Theorizing a Meme-Rhizome.

Abstract

This essay argues that memes should be theorized rhizomatically (Guattari & Deleuze, 1987) as adopting a rhizomatic approach positions memes as the culturally diffuse, ontologically boundaryless, asignifying “bastard offspring” (Arkenbout et al 2021, p8) they are. Memes are not ‘units’ of culture (Shifman, 2014), dormant and distinct from each other or culture at large, but are instead multiplicities, active, differential and futile to demarcate (Deleuze, 2011). Naturally, we must become bastards ourselves1. Memes cannot be understood in ontological isolation, but as frenetic assemblages of affect, identity, socio-technical system, economic logic, political advocacy, cultural bricolage etc. etc. To understand these intractable, shifting lattices, we must become intellectual opportunists in the spirit of Latour, Deleuze and other metaphilosophers.