The Romantic Selflessness: Sufism in Romanticism

Abstract

"I live not in myself, but I become/Portion of that around me," Lord Byron Chi/de Harold's Pilgrimage, III, 11.680-81.1 I start this study with the above quotation because the self in Romantic literature, perhaps most especially in Lord Byron, is so prominent, so asserted, that to speak of selflessness at all seems strained. Indeed, Romantic literature is packed with examples of the self versus the other, especially the orthodox other. Without denying the thrust of these, this work suggests that selflessness is an essential feature of Romantic literature and that definitions of Romanticism which deny or ignore the concept of selflessness risk misguiding the reading of some of the best Romantic works, which someiimes are being falsely accused of egotistical bombast. Of more academic concern, if selflessness is and can be shown a valid and necessary concept to the understanding of Romanticism, then its kinship with Sufism will be secured. .