Desi dark academia with Tumblr’s @Papenathys
Written by Anaya Mitchell & Aastha Malik
Dark Academia is an emerging, popular subculture that centers around the aesthetics of the ancient arts and classic literature. Focused on all things scholarly, the subculture has been brought into the spotlight as its aesthetics circle widely on TikTok. In your hours of scrolling, if you’ve ever run into vintage tweed jackets, leather satchels with books, brown-tinted photos with skulls and candles or literary references from all the classics, you probably are familiar with it. An article in the New York Times about its gaining popularity perfectly summed it up as “traditional-academic-with-a-gothic-edge.”
Much like various other popular subcultures, dark academia is dominantly eurocentric, concerned with the literarians and the fashion of the west. However, new voices amid the emerging trend are changing that. The Tumblr account @papenathy, run by Sritama, is one such voice, bringing Desi culture to the discourse.
Sritama is an English Literature student, currently in the final year of her bachelor's degree program. Since 2010, she has been writing and publishing critical analysis pertaining to the depiction of South Asian culture in mainstream media and fantasy literature. She works as a moderator at Writing with Colour, a network that creates and shares resources for BIPOC representation in writing. Asides reading, she enjoys researching Mughal era India and art history, watching Bollywood movies and gradually building an army of plush toys. She lives in Kolkata, India. We spoke to her regarding her experience with dark academia, her life in India and her representational mood boards for all things Desi.
What are your pronouns?
Sritama: She/her.
Song you know all the words to?
Sritama: Many. Too many to count. Several obnoxious flamboyant Bollywood dance songs and I’m proud of it. But also recently, I made some comics using the lyrics of this one song from “The Greatest Showman.” For every panel I drew, I listened to the song again. Now, I hear the lyrics when I sleep — it's disturbing.
Staple item of clothing?
Sritama: This one dark blue T-shirt, a gift from my best friend. I’ve worn the graphics off it. It’s got deep pockets. I know.
Three things you can’t leave the house without?
Sritama My phone, a notebook and pen, or writing material of any kind and earphones. The last thing I’m miserable without — I don’t know about wallets or whatever — but I have to listen to music while traveling.
What drew you to the dark academia aesthetic?
Sritama Donna Tartt’s “The Secret History.” Confession: I’m still as obsessed with it as when I created papenathys (the username itself should be a testament to that). I’m aware there’s deep literary critical analysis to be gleaned from it and others will articulate better about the satirical narrative of how elitism leads to imminent downfall but ehhh, I just want to look fancy and commit crimes with my friends in the woods.
No, but really, Tartt’s prose is bewitching and this book made everything I read for months afterward seem prosaic and bland. Perhaps it appealed to me because I read it while I was pursuing my English undergraduate degree; it lent a certain escapist romantic appeal (incidentally I was also studying the classics at the time). It’s so funny because it’s a primary favourite of the superficial variety of western dark academia, but like I said. Crimes in the woods. I am not immune to propaganda.
What made you start wanting to carve out a space in the dark academia aesthetic/community for Desi people?
Sritama: It’s funny, because initially, it wasn’t a dark academia thing at all, not specifically anyway. I had primarily started out with a pop culture/fandom blog. I went through the whole early 2010s youth experience, engaged with fandoms that have dominated mainstream entertainment: Harry Potter (of course!), “Game of Thrones,” “The Grishaverse,” several animated media, K-pop — this is just to name a few. I was a teen then, and like many South Asian kids my age, there wasn’t much — if any at all — representation I could find in these spaces, and we are not counting the Patil twins of Harry Potter as good Desi rep.
Even when I had made friends through participating in various fandom events, the conversations, sense of humour, pop culture references and prevalent aesthetics on Tumblr were absolutely, overwhelmingly Eurocentric. It sounds a little cheesy maybe, but it was difficult for a teenager sitting in a room in West Bengal, India to try and possibly relate to much of the multimedia experience, be it simple things like book recommendations or posts which were tailored to almost intentionally alienate anybody who didn’t live in Europe and North America (these were mostly pertaining to youth culture/identity-based).
I was only introduced to dark academia some two years ago, and well, we all know that subculture still remains staunchly white and western. When I created this blog, it was mainly to gush about “The Secret History,” but one of my first posts, which was about Indian Academia, received immense attention, more than anything I’d ever received in the mainstream fandoms, and it made me realize there are so many Desi people (not just Desi, though) who want to see themselves represented, and who are delighted simply to see names like Agha Shahid Ali or Leela Majumdar appear on a very American youth-oriented social media site. There were many people who messaged me over that one post; I was touched by how a simple book list of all things could have impacted such a large number of young Indians. Thus, I began to focus more on celebrating Desi aesthetics in any way I can: recommending Desi literature and media, popularizing Indian authors, creating edits and so on.
And then I thought, Why not combine the best of both worlds and focus on Desi Dark Academia? That’s how it all began. Although I will never say my blog is only dark academia or only Desi culture, and I definitely don’t claim to have started this aesthetic trend at all, there were many other, better blogs before me.
What has the response been to your account/mood boards?
Sritama It’s been really overwhelmingly positive and wholesome. I love all the comments from young, or not-so-young, South Asians who send me lovely messages. A lot of them are living in the West or studying somewhere away from home, and when they message me saying my blog reminds them of some particular childhood anecdote or makes them feel less homesick, it’s pretty much the best compliment. I remember this one person who remarked that the aesthetics of @papenathys takes them back to memories of their grandparents’ house. Another time someone told me, “Coming to your blog is like coming home, and my ma having chai ready.” These kinds of messages are so, so rewarding, and sometimes I barely can articulate my thanks toward them. I guess I’m still in shock about how popular my blog got, as it was all an accident, in a way. There is this really weird thing that happens when I am hesitant to interact with someone popular on the site and they suddenly go, “Hey, you are papenathys! I love your blog!” And I just sit there stupidly, accepting that I am known and perceived.
I admit the popularity was surprising to me, and it’s become a subject of amusement among my family and close friends. Sometimes my friends laugh at my disbelief! I’m still figuring out how to deal with it, honestly, especially all the messages I receive. But it’s been good.
Do you think dark academia is white-washed?
Sritama: I do indeed, and I have received some very humorous messages from people who were rather offended at the very same idea. You could argue that it’s a form of “fictional escapism” and thus, should be classified as harmless entertainment, and I can see some truth in that! I don’t think it’s wrong in of itself, I’m sure young students pretending they are in a Donna Tartt novel to liven up their bleary academic lives is a good, even necessary thing. But, as with all media, I think there’s a genuine conversation to be had about the privilege of seeking “escapism” in a very, very western upper-class subculture. There are certain works particularly cherished in the DA communities (not taking names, if you know, you know), and their literary/cinematic treatment of POC, if there are any in the first place, is not really ideal.
What is your favorite thing about Desi culture?
Sritama: Desi culture is too broad for me to possibly answer this question! “Desi” as a normative category incorporates much of South Asia, each country with its own plethora of traditions. I guess I’ll stick to us Bengalis, for this one: I genuinely love the intellectual spirit of the Bengalis and the way we cherish the arts (sadly, pursuing a career in humanities is still looked down upon in India), I love how my city is chock full of bookstores and book cafes and museums and art exhibits, how there are so many literary and film festivals and how there is literally a whole span of the road in central Kolkata spilling over with secondhand books! There are so many Bengali poets, writers and musicians who have gone on to achieve international acclaim. This spirit of fervent engagement with the arts is one aspect of my culture I cherish, and one I will surely miss if I were to leave in the future.
