Impersonal subjectivity and aesthetic self in abhinavagupta and nietzsche

Abstract

This paper engages Abhinavagupta and Nietzsche in terms of their views on the classical Sanskrit nāṭya and classical Greek tragedy. Although disparate in their aesthetics and philosophical frameworks, the two thinkers converge in characterising the aesthetic experience of nāṭya and tragedy as a universalised consciousness. For Abhinavagupta, it is an aesthetic pleasure in a repose (viśrānti) in one’s own consciousness, which is bliss, while for Nietzsche, it is a metaphysical solace in oneness with one living reality. Analysing the aesthetic theories of the two thinkers vis-a-vis their metaphysical positions, we have conceptualised the idea of the aesthetic self as the experiencer of the transformative experiences of the two dramatic arts in the impersonal modes of subjectivity.