Digital Confessionalism and the Indian Psyche: A Psychoanalytic Study of Contemporary Spoken-Word Poetry

Abstract

The present paper examines the emergence of digital confessionalism in contemporary Indian spoken-word poetry through performances published on platforms such as UnErase Poetry and Tape A Tale. Focusing on Yahya Bootwala’s Dear Parents, Nidhi Narwal’s I Need to Talk About This, Amandeep Singh’s to The Boy Who May Feel Lost, and Priya Malik’s Dear Mr. Sharma, it explores how confession has evolved from a private literary practice into a public, performative, and digitally mediated experience. These performances address emotional suppression, trauma, isolation, gendered shame, fragmented identity, and performative healing, reflecting the psychological concerns of contemporary urban India. Using a qualitative and interdisciplinary approach, the study combines psychoanalytic criticism, feminist theory, performance studies, and digital cultural analysis. Jacques Lacan’s concepts of the gaze, desire, and the fractured self-explain how digital spectatorship, visibility, and validation shape confessional expression. The ideas of Sudhir Kakar and Ashis Nandy illuminate the cultural dimensions of shame, emotional repression, and modernity in India, while Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Nivedita Menon provide feminist and postcolonial perspectives on gendered digital confession. The paper argues that contemporary Indian spoken-word poetry simultaneously democratizes confession and commodifies vulnerability through staged narratives of suffering and recovery, while encouraging future research on regional spoken-word traditions, digital selfhood, and algorithmic performativity.