Introduction: Dissenting Lives

Dissent is most memorable when it is public, explosive, dramatically enacted. Yet quiet dissent is no less effective as a methodical unstitching of social and political mores, rules and regulations. Success depends, perhaps, less on intensity than on determination, and while Margaretta Jolly makes no such distinction when she refers to 'persistent dissenters' in her contribution to this collection, much of the writing she examines falls into the latter category. Moreover, although many persistent dissenters often gain an iconic status, most live dissent in the fabric of their ordinary lives.