Class Struggle, Labor Power, and the Politics of the Body. Marxian Threads in the Work of Michel Foucault

Abstract

The article discusses the presence of "Marxian threads" in Michel Foucault's work beyond his criticism of Marxism. It focuses on a specific Marxian problematic, which means the production of labor power as a commodity, and aims at showing how reflections upon that problematic spur Foucault' s work in the early 1970s, providing us with a peculiar angle on the shifts that shape his trajectory after the publication of Discipline and Punish. At the center of the analysis pursued in the text are the lectures held by Foucault at the Collège de France in 1971/72 (Penal Theories and Institutions) and in 1972/73 (The Punitive Society). Many other texts and interviews are also discussed in order to shed light on Foucault's peculiar relationship with Marx and on the way in which a constant, although often underground dialogue with Marx helped him to delineate and develop his own problematic.