The intellectual’s strategies of resistance : Thoreau vs. Said

Abstract EN

For many critics and thinkers, the role of the intellectual is essential in generating popular defiance, resistance and opposition.

In this study, Edward Said’s and Henry David Thoreau’s oppositional ideas will be examined in terms of their strategies.

The argument of this paper revolves around the contextual climate of Thoreau and Said in which they vary in their views to the resistance methodologies.

Said, for instance, supports all means and forms of resistance that can bring about freedom and change including armed struggle.

Whereas, Thoreau’s resistance is represented in peaceful and passive means of resistance that disable and weaken the power structure, such as civil disobedience.

This study examines Thoreau’s and Said’s conception of the intellectual and his/her role in bringing about change and the end of oppression.

It also tries to raise some critical questions about the efficiency or inefficiency of each one’s strategies in resistance and opposition.