The Concept of Self in Indian Philosophy and English Romantic Literature: A Comparative Exploration

Willibald Vishal Francis

doi:10.22161/ijllc.5.6.4

Indexing and Abstracting

The Concept of Self in Indian Philosophy and English Romantic Literature: A Comparative Exploration

Willibald Vishal Francis

International Journal of Language, Literature and Culture (IJLLC), Vol-5,Issue-6, November - December 2025, Pages 27-34, 10.22161/ijllc.5.6.4

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Article Info: Received: 23 Oct 2025, Received in revised form: 19 Nov 2025, Accepted: 23 Nov 2025, Available online: 27 Nov 2025

Abstract:

This paper undertakes a comparative philosophical-literary exploration of the concept of self as it emerges in Indian philosophical traditions—particularly Advaita Vedānta and Sāṃkhya-Yoga—and in the works of major English Romantic poets such as William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. While the Romantic tradition posits the self as both a source of poetic creativity and as a reflective, often solitary, consciousness engaging with nature and the sublime, Indian philosophical systems present the self (ātman) as a deeper ontological reality—pure, unchanging, and ultimately non-dual. Through a close reading of selected Romantic texts and primary Indian philosophical sources, this study examines whether the Romantic ideal of the poetic self aligns with the Vedāntic notion of self-realization (mokṣa) or remains trapped within a limited egoic frame. Special emphasis is placed on the tension between emotional subjectivity and metaphysical universality, and on the moral-aesthetic implications of this tension. The paper argues that Indian metaphysical insights enrich and critique the Romantic valorization of the poetic ego, inviting a reconsideration of selfhood not as expressive individuality but as spiritual unveiling. This interdisciplinary inquiry opens a productive East–West dialogue at the intersection of literature, philosophy, and consciousness studies.

Keywords:

Romanticism, Advaita Vedānta, poetic self, ātman, nature and consciousness, comparative literature, Indian philosophy

References:

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Indexing and Abstracting

The Concept of Self in Indian Philosophy and English Romantic Literature: A Comparative Exploration

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