Self/ Other Dichotomy in Salim Abu Jumhur’s Poetry: An Imagological Study

Abstract

The “Self” in its Arabic and Islamic forms, depicts the brightest and most vivid imagery that has appeared in front of the Western “Other”; the “Other” who is depicted as a colonizer is thinking of colonizing “my” land and culture and takes steps in my land. Viewing the “Other” from the cultural and civilizational perspective depends on the view of institutions and differences that it has with the “Other”. The relationship between “Self” and the “Other” is on the basis of cooperation, and the discourse or struggles that it itself seeks to prove its essence by means of this antagonism. One of the important topics in the healthy works of Abu Jumhur, an Emirate author, is the issue of Self/ Other dichotomy. Abu Jumhur’s poetry is filled with the confrontation of “Self” against the “Other”, which can be the focus of his research because the poet describes the "Other" in all its forms in his poetry. With this confrontation, the essence of the poet becomes apparent. The present study attempts to discover “Self” and “Other” in poetry by reading Abu Jumhur’s poetry and relying on the imagological approach. The results showed that “Self” is clear in Abu Jumhur’s poetry, and the poet means the “me” in his poetry, the individual, the collective, and the human, while the “Other” in his poetry is the western other, opposite to the poet’s “Self”. The non- Western other is one of compatriots who do not share his sorrows. The “Other” is not independently represented in Abu Jumhur’s poetry, so it cannot be easily recognized.