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

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.