The Rhizomatic West: Representing the American West in a Transnational, Global, Media Age

Abstract

The concept of a “rhizomatic West,” which Campbell introduced in the epilogue to his earlier work, The Cultures of the American New West, takes center stage in this new book. Drawing on the work of architectural historians, cultural studies scholars, and poststructuralist theorists, Campbell seeks to replace static, unitary conceptions of the West with dynamic, multiple ones. For Campbell, “roots” should give way to “routes,” and “the West” should be thought of as “westness”—an in-progress “itinerary” rather than a finished map (37). In theorizing “westness” in this way, Campbell situates himself alongside other critical regionalists who envision a “reframed region/regionalism” as an “international, living mix of voices, uncontained, problematic, contradictory—a series of ‘border discourses’” that more accurately reflects the contemporary West than do nostalgic myths of authenticity (44). Campbell's assertion that the American West is “international property” and his corresponding call for “outsider” perspectives on westness are timely, coinciding as they do with the expansion of American Studies to account for transnational perspectives (44).