Malayali Women's Travel Writing in Instagram and Digitally Mediated Cultures of Reading

This article examines the role of Instagram pages run by two Malayali women, Abreeda Banu (@abreedabanu) and Hanna Mehthar (@hannamehthar), in shaping a fast-evolving Gen Z reading culture. Focusing on their Insta-travel narratives, travel reels, and Bookstagram reviews, the paper explores how their virtual travel texts have significantly influenced the publication of their travelogues in print, thereby highlighting the intersection between digital and print-based literary cultures. Situated within the broader landscape of vernacular digital literary production in India, the paper explores how Malayalam is redefining the boundaries of electronic literature through accessible, affect-driven, and community-oriented storytelling practices emerging from Instagram cultures. Drawing on networks of desire (Kozinets, R., Patterson, A., Ashman, R., Dahl, D., & Thompson, C. 2017. Networks of desire: How technology increases our passion to consume. Journal of Consumer Research, 43(5), 659-682. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucw061) and literary aspiration within Gen Z literary cultures, the study investigates how these micro-celebrities position themselves as book influencers. At the same time, these seemingly organic and affective digital networks are also embedded within the local book market economy, sustained by amateur publishing houses that primarily cater to Instareaders and followers who shape and consume this emerging literary ecosystem. By situating Malayalam Insta-literature within contemporary publishing cultures and Gen Z literary practices, the paper considers how digitally mediated Indian vernacular writings reconfigure the very idea of "LiteratureS" in the digital age.