THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

2.2 Modernismo and its Masters: Darío and Quiroga The Avatar in Panamathematic and ideological purpose. For Jaramillo Levi it seems more anexercise in narratology with the gradual revelation of the guest narratoras the climax of the story. 55The perspective of the corpse storyteller is a device JaramilloLevi employs in several stories. 56 The commentary in both “Bautismoausente” and “El retrato” (CC) comes from unnamed male deceasedcharacters who have been the victims of shootings while in “El muerto”(FM), the reader’s literal or figurative approach to the story alters whomay be telling it. In these cases it is cleverly disguised from the readerthat the protagonist is not of this world.“Bautismo ausente” begins with a premonition eliciting a doubleand provoking a repeat experience that neatly closes the story: “vi en elfondo de un vaso de agua un rostro que no era el mío. No conocía eserostro ceñudo” (146). This experience, of not recognising oneself, isalso portrayed in “El muerto”: “Me miro al espejo y veo a un hombredemacrado, serio, otro” (92). The narrator of “Bautismo ausente” isrecounting his travel experience in transit. Unbeknown to the reader inthe early stages of the narrative, he is a thinking lucid character whosebody is being repatriated as he comments: “el viaje resultó ser el menoscansado de todos los realizados. Pero intuía que ya en Panamáconocían la noticia, lo cual me hizo imaginar el aeropuerto de Tocumenlleno de familiares y amigos”. 57 The story is cleverly constructed as theoverall tone is clear and concise, not hallucinatory or grief-stricken, andyet is later ambiguous. By the fifth paragraph, it is obvious something isamiss with the storyteller: “no sé quiénes me bajaron del avión […] misrestos serían siempre cerca de ustedes”, and by the sixth, it is evidenthe is being discussed by onlookers: “morir de repente, tan lejos de supaís […] pero miren nada más cómo murió, comentaba otra voz, ¿quéhacía metido en un lugar así?” (147). The reader is eventually informedof the narrator’s demise by his own vivid description of his murder in ascene corresponding to the first and second paragraphs and confirmingthe premonition.In “El muerto”, the protagonist is also repatriated as the readeris told: “Regresó a su país, a la mujer que no era la suya” (94).Quiroga’s protagonist is also metaphorically returned to his land bydying on it in such a way. In Jaramillo Levi’s “El muerto”, the yodiscourse is fused with the nos narration in paragraph six, “Y entoncesnos cruza un pájaro negro frente a los ojos, nos distrae, me distrae, mehace pensar que tal vez estemos muertos en la vida. Y los muertos,55 This could well be the case as Jaramillo Levi admits that Duplicaciones was theliterary result of his time spent in Mexico undertaking creative writing workshopswhere exercises like this were imposed.56 See Appendix C Dead, Dying and Disappearing Characters.57Jaramillo Levi, “Bautismo ausente”, 147.109