Magdi Youssef (born 22 July 1936) is an Egyptian professor of comparative literature and culture studies. He has taught at various universities in Europe and Egypt until his retirement.Cf. Franca Sinopoli’s editorial note in her book “European Literature, seen by others” which mentions: “Magdi Youssef insegna Letteratura comparata all’ Università de Il Cairo (Egitto)” (Franca Sinopoli (ed.), La letteratura europea vista dagli altri, Roma (Meltemi) 2003, p.67). Al-Ahram (according to the Middle East Institute the equivalent of the New York Times in the Arab World) called Youssef “the renowned culture critic.”Mahmoud El-Wardani, “At A Glance” (book reviews), in: al Ahram Weekly, Issue No.538, June 14–20, 2001, culture page. - Also accessible in the online edition. He is widely noted in the Arab world for his analytic interventions that focus on cultural alienation and unequal exchange in the sphere of culture.Mahmoud El-Wardani, “At A Glance”, ibidem. His book Critical Battles received wide attention.In the Al Ahram Weekly article “Battle of the mind,” Assem El-Dessouqi writes that “real problems begin when a writer automatically discards criticism on the grounds that the critic is merely out to slander him, instead of offering corrections or enhancing readers' knowledge of the subject at hand. […] What a relief, then, to come across Magdi Youssef, a writer who knows that the true value of criticism lies in its capacity to promote original thought and to raise literacy standards. Moreover, having an extensive sociological background and, thus, a thorough familiarity with the jargon, Youssef is alert to misappropriations of sociological terms. As a result, in his new book Critical Battles, Youssef is well placed to address many of criticism's central concerns.” (Assem El-Dessouqi, “Battles of the mind,” in: Al Ahram Weekly, Issue 630, 20–26 March 20–26, 2003. Culture page. – Also online. ) Youssef has contributed to the proceedings of comparative literature congresses in Latin America, Asia, Europe and the US., and to such journals as Al-Hilal, the International Journal of Middle East Studies (Cambridge Univ. Press) and Theatre Research International (Oxford Univ. Press). He is also the founding president of the International Association of Intercultural Studies (IAIS) and still actively involved in theoretical debates related to intercultural relations and comparative literature.Cf. N.N., "No one listened / Science, independence and grassroots art: a German-based Egyptian scholar offers critical insight into the Arab presentation at the Frankfurt Book Fair" in: Al Ahram Weekly, Issue No. 707, Sept. 9-15, 2004 (Culture page); see also: Mme. Sosostris, “Pack of Cards,” in: Al-Ahram Weekly, Issue No.511, 7–13 December 2000, culture page.
Youssef is a member of the Association pour l'avancement des études islamiques, Collège de France (Paris).See for instance his “Intervention sur la méthodologie de la recherche,” in: Discours, écriture et société dans le Monde Islamique Contemporain, Actes du Colloque de l’Association pour l’Avancement des Études Islamiques, Collège de France, Paris, 1982, pp.70-71, that he contributed as an active member of the association. He is also listed as a member of the International Sociological Association (ISA), L'Association Internationale des Sociologues de Langue Francaise, the International Brecht Society, based in the US, the Egyptian Association of Plastic Art Critics and the International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA).See the Egyptian Who is Who, the Who is Who in the Middle East, and the International Who is Who in Asian Studies (H.K.). Magdi Youssef adheres to the Egyptian writers' union and the German Schriftstellerverband.See the biographical note in: Intercultural Studies http://www.intercultural-studies.org/biography/biography.shtml.
Outside academe, Youssef was widely noted as a critic of contemporary developments and a culture critic by such daily newspapers and weeklies as The Irish Times, Al-Masry Al-Youm, Al Qahira, Al-Ahram Daily, Al-Ahram Hebdo, Al-Ahram Weekly, as well as other media in the Arab World, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, and the US.The Irish Times mentioned Youssef, for instance, as the leading figure of the writers and artists who protested in 1991 against the impending Gulf War. The Irish Times gave the following list: “Professor Dr Magdi Youssef (Egyptian writer on sabbatical in Dublin), Gabriel Rosenstock (writer), Nuala Ní Dhomnaill (poet), Hugh Maxton (poet), Brendan Kennelly (poet), Robert Ballag (artist), Jennifer Johnston (writer), Kader Asmal (lecturer), Aodh O'Chanain (writer in Irish).” See: “Open Letter to Mr. Bush: No to War / An appeal by writers and artists as the UN deadline looms,” in: The Irish Times, Jan. 15, 1991, p.5. – The reference, in the open letter, to the Arab philosopher and poet Abul-Alaa who, by relying on reason, convinced a commander-in-chief not to destroy his native place called “al-Maara,” suggests that Youssef took the initiative of writing this open letter and asking other writers and artists to join in signing it. The play "Draussen vor der Tür" (Outside the Door" mentioned in the petition, that was written by the German author Wolfgang Borchert in the aftermath of World War 2, and became an icon of anti-war literature, had been translated from German into Arabic by Youssef when he was in his early twenties and performed since by youth companies in four Arab countries, among which the Lebanon in 1994 while being projected on the Lebanese civil war of the time.
Early life and education
Magdi Youssef is a native of Cairo. After completing his social scientific studies at Ain Shams University in Cairo and pursuing advanced studies in Germany, he acquired in October 1975 the degree of Dr. rer. soc. from the Faculty of Social Sciences of Bochum University (recognized by the Supreme Council of Universities of Egypt as the equivalent of a Ph.D.). From 1963 till 1971, he collaborated with the German ‘orientalist’ Annemarie Schimmel, translating literary and philosophical texts and contributing to the periodical Fikrun wa Fann (Thought and Art). In her book Morgenland und Abendland: Mein west-östliches Leben [Orient and Occident: My West-Eastern Life], Prof. Annemarie Schimmel, remembers walking through a quarter of Cairo with her old collaborator Magdi Youssef, the “früheren Hauptübersetzer für Fikrun wa Fann” (main translator for Fikrun wa Fann ), a journal that she edited. (Annemarie Schimmel, Morgenland und Abendland: Mein west-östliches Leben. Munich (C.H.Beck Verlag) 4th ed. 2003, pp.221f. He has two children.
Academic career
Youssef taught at German universities since 1965. After intensive debates with conventional Orientalists, he established and taught the hitherto contested subject of Modern and Contemporary Arabic Literature and Culture at Cologne University. Modern and Contemporary Arabic Literature had been widely ignored in German academe (which specialized in Classical Arabic and the Islamic Legacy). Youssef continued to teach this subject at Cologne University until 1971.
From October 1971–76, Youssef taught Modern Arabic Literature and Culture at the Department of Philology at Bochum University. Since then he has lectured on the Interactions between the Arab and Western Socio-Cultural Formations in Modern Times, at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Bochum University, at post-graduate level.See the announcement of Youssef's lectures and seminars in the printed Vorlesungsverzeichnisse (teaching programs of Cologne and Bochum Universities of that period.
From 1979 to 1981, Youssef continued to commute between Bochum and Tanta, teaching Methodology of Research at the department of sociology and the department of philosophy at Tanta University (Egypt).Cf. an editorial note appended to an article contributed by Youssef that appeared in: General problems of literary history. / Problèmes généraux de l'histoire littéraire. (Proceedings of the Xth Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association Congress), edited by Douwe Wessel Fokkema; Edward C Smith (ICLA), New York (Garland Pub.) 1985. He was Professor of Methodology of Research at the Academy of Arts in Cairo from 1983 to 1984.Cf. Asian journal of economics and social studies: Volume 9, Jan. 1, 1990 (ed. by Prof. R.L. Goel on behalf of the Society for Asian Development, Delhi, India), p.88. Until his retirement, Magdi Youssef was Professor of Comparative Literature and Drama Studies at the Faculty of Arts at Cairo University (from the mid-1980s-2005).See the state-sponsored Who is Who in Egypt, 1989, first edition, p. 278; see also: Mme. Sosostris, “Pack of Cards,” in: Al-Ahram Weekly, Issue No.511, 7–13 December 2000, culture page. From 1988 to 1991 he was simultaneously a visiting professor of Methodology of Research at the Faculty of Mass Communication at the same university.See the state-sponsored Who is Who in Egypt, 1989, first edition, p.278. Youssef has also been a visiting professor at Trinity College Dublin.Cf. Mme. Sosostris, ibidem. And he taught at Bonn University in the context of Gastprofessur.See the catalog of Bonn University which lists his Hauptseminar “Arabische Verflechtungen in der Moderne” in 2009. More recently, he has been offered a research fellowship at the Free University of Berlin (in 2014 and 2015).
Brecht in Egypt