The Dialectic of the Ego and the Other: in Sa’adi Youssef’s Poetry

Abstract

This paper concentrates on the position of the ‘other’ in Sa’adi Youssef’s consciousness and his ‘ego’, as he said: I walk with everyone and my steps are alone. Along with, his connection to the poetry of the ‘other’ and its impact on his reader. Finally, he wrote about the cities of the other, especially New York as a city and a sign of a system. In light of this, this research reads the manifestations of the other and its manifestations that it will stop at: the issue of the center and the margin, weak and strong, black and white, man and woman. Or the ego and the other, as well as Sa’adi's employment of heritage in his poetry with special artistry as an intellectual reference, the selection of its illuminating texts, and the restoration of what shines from it in the present, and the use of symbols, masks, biographies, mirrors and other numerous shreds of evidence of that in his production. So I was describing, based on my belief in the task of revealing reading, not judging, coupled with textual evidence and indications provided by the text, especially in the case of a poet like Sa’adi Youssef. This is what I tried to clarify, and I read it with a cultural horizon that allows openness to its reality and its margins that are absent from critical theorizing, arriving at conclusions that are in turn presented for certainty and discussion.