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초록

This study explores the interplay of invisibility and hypervisibility in Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss, examining how these concepts shape the identity of diasporic and post-diasporic characters. By analyzing how visibility is mediated through the self-subjectification/ hetero-objectification paradigm of the gaze, this paper reveals how displacement complicates identity formation. Displaced individuals, often objectified and abjectified as ‘out of place’, seek invisibility to blend into their host society but become hypervisible in political discourse. Kiran Desai’s characters navigate this tension by seeking invisibility to reduce vulnerability, a response reinforced by societal marginalization. However, this need for invisibility can turn into a desire for hypervisibility upon returning home, driven by a distorted attempt to reclaim a pseudo-sovereign power. This paper questions whether this duality between invisibility and hypervisibility can be transcended or remains intrinsic to the dislocation experience and examines how these dynamics shape self-perception and construct an “always already” otherized displaced identity.