Daejeon, July 27–31
Introduction
In India, writers and artists actively create, distribute, and engage with electronic literature (e-lit) through innovative projects that blend with digital technologies and tools (Prickett, 2015; Shanmugapriya, 2021; Pandurangan, 2019; Sinha, 2020). These projects express diverse narratives, explore new forms of storytelling, and address various social issues (see Shanmugapriya & Sutton, 2022; Mukherjee, 2017; Roy, 2025; Joseph & Menon, 2022; Roy, n.d.). Scholarships (Joseph & Menon, 2022; Mukherjee, 2017) highlight the existing categorisation of Indian e-lit and its critical absence from the national literary and cultural scene. While Indian e-lit can provide crucial support for marginalised communities by creating a platform for self-representation, community building, visibility, and encouraging creative expression as a means of empowerment and resistance, the limitations in existing Indian LGBTIQ+ e-lit scholarships and genre classifications restrict their impact. These gaps create barriers to accessibility, recognition, and academic legitimacy, limiting opportunities for a broader and more diverse group of writers, scholars, and readers. The lack of institutional support, limited archiving efforts, and minimal integration into mainstream literary and cultural discourse further hinder the expansion and visibility of Indian e-lit. Considering the specific gap, this paper explores Indian trans women's digital literary works.
Moreover, to the best of the authors' knowledge, scholars have hardly explored the intersection between marginalised communities, Indian LGBTIQA+ individuals, and electronic literature in India. Considering the specific gap, we explore Indian trans women's digital literary works in this paper. We find numerous creative LGBTIQ+ works in Western e-lit, such as Judd Morrissey & ATOM-r’s Kjell Theory (2022), Edmond Y. Chang’s Why are the Digital Humanities So straight? (2021), Meredith Morran’s The Buoy (2019), etc. This Western e-lit work combines computational processes, code, visuals, user participation, interactive media, and literary expression, employing participatory methods that challenge traditional print literary forms. Writers in India actively publishing a growing body of creative works on trans women reflect diverse narratives (Kali Subramaniam, 2018; Voice of Akkai Padmashali, 2024; Trans Woman Kalki Subramaniam, 2015; BedTime Kahaniya, 2022). Rather than directly mirroring the e-lit models of developed countries, it is essential to recognise creative works on YouTube as Indian e-lit that align with the country’s unique cultural and literary landscape. These works combine digital form and delivery, aesthetic and narrative intent, multimodality, born-digital or digitised adaptation, interactivity and participation. The study examines the following research questions,
Can we consider YouTube literature on Indian trans women as trans women e-lit?
The Electronic Literature Collection Volume 4 highlights that the “definition of elit are incomplete and evolving. Eliterature authors creatively adopt new technologies whenever available, eluding contemporaneous definitions” (2022). While such early definitions emphasised text as the core medium, recent scholarship (Ensslin & Roy, 2023; Joseph & Menon, 2022; and Flores, 2019) shows that e-lit includes multimodal and performative forms as oral, visual, filmic, and embodied. Consequently, what becomes crucial is the aesthetic and narrative intent within a digital medium. In this light, YouTube functions as an inherently open-access creative platform, where creators produce and establish content in electronic format. As a result, trans women/individuals create and share their digital narratives on YouTube, integrating storytelling, discussions, personal experiences, and verbal language with visual design, performance, creative expression, user participation and engagement. As Mukherjee highlights, we identify two types of creative work on YouTube: Print-to-digital adaptations with an aesthetic focus and born-digital works with an intrinsic aesthetic emphasis.
For example, in 2015, Kalki Subramaniam published ‘விதியை எழுதினேன் .. - கவிதை: திருநங்கை கல்கி ’ (Fate, I wrote.. -poem: Trans Women Kalki) on a blog (Trans Woman Kalki Subramaniam, 2015). Readers may access the poem link through the following link: https://thirunangaiyar.blogspot.com/2015/10/blog-post_9.html. Initially, it resembled a print-format Tamil poem and in 2018, it evolved into digital poetry as ‘விதியை எழுதினேன் - திருநங்கை தமிழ்க்கவிதை படம் - கல்கி சுப்ரமணியம் ’, Fate, I wrote- Trans Women Tamil Poetry Film- Kalki Subramaniam), presented in Tamil and subtitled in English (see Figure 1). The video (Subramaniam, 2018) link can be accessed at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqhY8al7HiM.
Figure 1: Screenshot from the YouTube video “Fate, I wrote- Trans Women Tamil Poetry Film- Kalki Subramaniam”
The born-digital creative work, such as the animated story on YouTube titled ‘किन्नर माँ का प्यार - Hindi Kahaniya - Cartoon - Kiner Bani Maa -हिंदीकहानी - Hindi Moral stories’ (Trans Mother’s Love – Hindi Stories – Cartoon – Kinner Became a Mother – Hindi Story – Hindi Moral Stories) originates as a digital production (see Figure 2). The video can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1SBKrX7h58&t=15s.
Figure 2: Screenshot from the YouTube video “किन्नर माँ का प्यार - Hindi Kahaniya - Cartoon - Kiner Bani Maa -हिंदीकहानी - Hindi Moral stories”
These print-to-digital and born-digital works demonstrate digital delivery and consumption, using verbal language as a carrier of meaning, maintaining an aesthetic focus, and incorporating new technologies and networked literature. Additionally, viewers actively engage through views, comments, likes, and dislikes, reinforcing these works as electronic literature. Furthermore, these works reject traditional, non-digital formats. Indian trans women/individuals and other marginalised genders increasingly utilise digital platforms like YouTube to showcase their creative works, including poems, stories, oral songs, innovative performances, etc. It is an accessible platform where individuals with minimal technical knowledge can easily produce and share videos for community networks.
Archiving metadata of Indian Trans Women’s Creative Works
Considering the scarcity of trans women's electronic literature in India, we archive the metadata of trans women-related creative outputs using the Omeka tool for dissemination and scholarly research. It is a crucial step toward bridging the gap between digital storytelling and recognising these narratives as valuable cultural and literary artefacts. The study chose various specific key terms (‘Trans women,’ ‘Transgender,’ etc.), languages (Tamil, English, Hindi, etc.), and regions such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar, etc. (2012-2025) because they reflect diverse cultural, linguistic, and social identities associated with trans women in India. The study applies the traditional, above-mentioned keywords that predominantly address trans women in Indian states. In addition, we recognise that the poems (27), songs (3), and animated stories (28) were chosen to archive and to consider Indian trans women's electronic literature because they offer a diverse linguistic background, personal experiences of trans women, and cultural impact which can spread widely among all age groups of people to be referenced by trans women and individuals. We use SEO Studio to scrape thumbnails and video titles for metadata collection and Pictory. Ai to understand the content better. To enter the details into the Omeka platform and avoid copyright issues, we upload the default Dublin Core metadata, including title, subject, description, creator, source, publisher, date, contributor, rights, relation, format, language, type, and identifier.
We refer to this archive as the “Indian Trans Women Electronic Literature Metadata Archive” to highlight its focus on preserving and organising literary and digital narratives created by and about trans women in India (see Figure 3). The archive can be accessed at the following link: https://5593.omeka.net/. These video narratives are distinctive in engaging with themes of gender identity, culture, discrimination, love, empowerment, activism, marginalisation, resilience, and community solidarity, often expressed through dialogue modes, songs, poems, etc. Such thematic narratives are recurring features in their creative works.
Figure 3: Screenshot of the Indian Trans Women Electronic Literature Archive.
Future research
Our future research will examine challenges such as financial barriers, limited technical access, and inadequate institutional support while recommending solutions like workshops, digital platforms, and collaborative networks to strengthen their participation in e-lit. Additionally, we will explore the study’s third question and various topics, including the impact, challenges, significance, themes, and evolution of trans women-related creative outputs on the Omeka platform. Furthermore, we plan to expand the archive by obtaining permissions, broadening the scope of narratives included, integrating advanced digital tools, and collaborating with creative authors. As a part of this effort, we will also plan workshops on electronic literature tools to engage LGBTIQA+ creative writers in e-lit, encourage collective contributions, and facilitate the dissemination of their work.
Limitations
Covering all Indian languages is not feasible, as India has a vast linguistic diversity. Like YouTube, the Omeka tool does not support high storage needs, as it offers a maximum of 500 MB. Furthermore, emphasising trans women’s creative outputs as e-lit on digital platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, etc is essential. However, considering the scope of this paper, we focus on YouTube.