{"product_id":"the-arcana-of-reproduction-housewives-prostitutes-workers-and-capital-leopoldina-fortunati","title":"The Arcana of Reproduction: Housewives, Prostitutes, Workers and Capital – Leopoldina Fortunati","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAvailable with shipping in the US\u003cspan\u003e and UK \u003c\/span\u003eonly.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTranslated by Arlen Austin and Sara Colantuono\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"t-rte\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe definitive feminist analysis of reproductive and ‘caring’ labor to emerge from Italian feminism of the 1970s\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEmerging from the great social upheavals that contested the sexual and racial divisions of labor globally in the 1970s, Leopoldina Fortunati’s classic work expands and transforms how we analyze the sphere of reproduction, redefining the value of the individual’s life and the labor performed in the home.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReleased here for the first time in its unabridged form with historical notation and contemporary commentary,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Arcana of Reproduction\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis a foundational text and essential contribution to today’s discussions of social reproduction and the history of Italian feminism. Fortunati’s work provides some of the earliest theorizations of ‘immaterial,’ ‘affective,’ and ‘caring’ labor, and of the role of technology in reproduction, articulated decades before their popular reception in English academic literature. Reading this work some 50 years after its original publication gives us the tools to analyze the contemporary state of capitalist development and of women’s lives today. The text remains prefigurative and essential in our era of digital labor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003csection class=\"c-product-reviews\"\u003e\u003c\/section\u003e\n\u003csection class=\"c-product-reviews\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"t-rte\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"metafield-rich_text_field\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReviews\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eThe Arcana of Reproduction\u003c\/em\u003e is a true \u003cem\u003etour de force\u003c\/em\u003e, unique both in the world of Marxism and Feminism. Whereas Marxist-Feminists have generally only elaborated on the significance of Marx’s work for understanding women’s oppression and exploitation, Fortunati ‘sweeps away’ our common sense notions of production and reproduction by testing Marxian categories through their unorthodox application to the realm of reproduction. The result is a painstaking analysis that explores these two interlocking spheres as both interdependent and different—radically unsettling our understanding of both.\"\u003cbr\u003e- Silvia Federici\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"A classic of the great “domestic labor debates” of the 1970s and 80s, \u003cem\u003eThe Arcana of Reproduction\u003c\/em\u003e remains the most subversive feminist critique of productivist understandings of value. This new translation is a must read for all those seeking to understand how capitalism exploits women’s unpaid labor and conceals this form of exploitation by relegating it to the margins of the wage relation. By re-centering social reproduction as the key battlefield on which the extraction of surplus-value is contested, \u003cem\u003eThe Arcana\u003c\/em\u003e’s arguments remain central to understanding contemporary capitalism and a world of work increasingly characterized by forms of wagelessness that have moved well beyond the sphere of housework alone.\"\u003cbr\u003e- Alessandra Mezzadri, Reader in Global Development and Political Economy, SOAS, London\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Fortunati's work is a groundbreaking classic of workerist feminism, distilling and elaborating critical concepts from an era of revolutionary feminist thought and politics. The work expands and moves beyond traditional Marxist categories, offering a bold and innovative analysis of the unpaid labor of the reproductive labor sphere that forms the basis of the capitalist system. In providing an analysis of a historical moment, she gives today's feminists an indispensable guide to understanding the importance and complexities of struggles over reproduction.\"\u003cbr\u003e- Mariarosa della Costa, co-author of \u003cem\u003eThe Power of Women \u0026amp; the Subversion of the Community\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"This excellent edition, wonderfully edited and translated, with insightful supplementary texts by Federici and the author, demonstrates the contemporary importance of this classic feminist text.\"\u003cbr\u003e- Michael Hardt, author of \u003cem\u003eThe Subversive Seventies\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eThe Arcana of Reproduction\u003c\/em\u003e is a must-read because it is an at once singular and path-breaking contribution to Marxist feminist theorizations of the capitalist production\/reproduction system and because of the powerful estrangement—from domestic labor, from the institution of the heteropatriarchal family, from the gendered ideologies of work—that it continues to provoke.\"\u003cbr\u003e- Kathi Weeks, author of The Problem with Work\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/section\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePaperback \/  Verso \/ 352 \u003cspan\u003epages \/ February 2025 \/ 9781839767401\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Verso","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41410751430741,"sku":null,"price":45.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0006\/7554\/5141\/files\/getimage_82156608-b5ec-4966-8e91-d3c4a573fccf.webp?v=1750431553","url":"https:\/\/shop.workingclasshistory.com\/en-ca\/products\/the-arcana-of-reproduction-housewives-prostitutes-workers-and-capital-leopoldina-fortunati","provider":"Working Class History | Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}