Author(s): Mala Poria

Abstract: This paper investigates the interrelated themes of love, grief, and mental health in the novels of Indian popular fiction writer Durjoy Datta, with a focus on how trauma is experienced, expressed, and often silenced within the digital cultures of urban youth. Through a close reading of selected texts, the study argues that Datta's fiction serves as a cultural mirror to the shifting emotional landscapes of contemporary Indian society— where emotional repression, romantic disillusionment, and psychological vulnerability are deeply entangled with technology, gender roles, and neoliberal expectations of happiness and productivity. Using a multidisciplinary framework combining affect theory, trauma studies, and masculinity studies, the paper positions Datta's work as an essential yet underexplored contribution to modern Indian literature that demands critical attention for its portrayal of youth mental health and the affective labor embedded in love and loss.

Keywords: love, grief, mental health, trauma, digital youth culture.

Article Info: Received: 31 Mar 2025; Received in revised form: 27 Apr 2025; Accepted: 02 May 2025; Available online: 06 May 2025

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.103.2