Silvia Federici
400 pages
Paperback
To celebrate her solo exhibition, Public Domain at Camden Art Centre, we offer Marina Xenofontos' reading list exclusively selected by the artist.
Caliban and the Witch is a history of the body in the transition to capitalism. Moving from the peasant revolts of the late Middle Ages to the witch-hunts and the rise of mechanical philosophy, Federici investigates the capitalist rationalization of social reproduction. She shows how the battle against the rebel body and the conflict between body and mind are essential conditions for the development of labor power and self-ownership, two central principles of modern social organization.