Digital Pathways and Diasporic Subjectivities: A Comparative Study of The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing and Gold Diggers

Abstract This paper examines the role of digital mediation in shaping diasporic subjectivities through a comparative study of two contemporary Indian diasporic novels, Gold Diggers and The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing. Digital pathways refer to the virtual networks created through the Internet, digital apps, instant messaging, and social media that complicate the generational experience of identity and belonging across generations in transnational, digital, and urban environments. Gold Diggers captures the hyper-digitized immediacy of second-generation immigrants navigating suburban and metropolitan America, emphasizing affect, ambition, and the formation of a digital community. In contrast, The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing traces the pre-2000s emergence of digital culture, marking a transitional moment in which new media began to function as early tools of diasporic self-fashioning. Grounded on the theoretical frameworks of Digital Diaspora and Saskia Sassen’s global city, the paper adopts a qualitative methodology and textual analysis to examine how digital platforms serve as affective spaces for identity negotiation and emotional connection and disconnection. Ultimately, the comparative analysis reveals how both texts position digital platforms as transformative spaces where diasporic identities are formed, fragmented, and reimagined in the twentyfirst century—reflecting evolving paradigms of diasporic subjectivity in response to globalization and digitality. Keywords: comparative study, diasporic subjectivity, digital diaspora, global cities, identity, technology