The #malayalambookstagram: Identity and Literacy in Shared Acts of Reading on Social Media

Gouthaman K J 
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, Hyderabad-500075, Telangana, India.

^{Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 16, Issue 3, 2024. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v16n3.10g
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Abstract

The paper analyzes select images from Instagram with the hashtag #malayalambookstagram. Reliant on the theory of visual grammar and social semiotic theories about selfies and hashtags, the study demonstrates that the hashtag is used with many images that do not represent books or reading. The hashtag is reanalyzed in social media to include other ‘values’ because the language name ‘Malayalam’ indexes the ‘Malayali’ linguistic identity and recontextualizes the book-related discourse to an identity-centric domain. The paper explores Malayali linguistic identity in connection with Kerala’s achievements in social development and the community’s attitude towards it. Literacy, reading and print culture, crucial to the formation and sustenance of Malayali subnationalism, have mediated the meanings ascribed to the linguistic identity. The paper concludes that the close relationship of Malayali identity with books and reading is vital for the recontextualization of book-reviewing discourse in social media to an identity-centric discourse.

Keywords: Social Media, Reading, Identity, Bookstagram, Literacy.