“The adventures of Caliban”: a reading starting from Basaglia and Fanon

Abstract

Starting from the The Tempest of Shakespeare, the aim of this paper is to show, through Caliban, the model of social disqualification developed by Occidental society. Caliban is indeed a criminal, deranged and also African (namely a “nigga”); and for century he has symbolized the other, the different and the stranger. Furthermore, this archetype of criminalization became complete with positivism. But precisely in the nineteen century, it received a lot of criticism from two psychiatrists, Franco Basaglia and Frantz Fanon, who explained how this model hides the sense of supremacy towards the Other.