THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

2.2 Modernismo and its Masters: Darío and Quiroga The Avatar in PanamaLevi, which affected the storyteller’s reliability, include treatment ofdream states, use and abuse of mind-altering substances, sanatoriums,and insanity. This in turn allowed for multiple interpretations of the text.Those exploited by Quiroga -Jaramillo Levi's most significant influence-,encompassed deceptive and complex narrative points of view from thedead, dying, and the animal kingdom, with a focus on nature and itsimpact on man. The Latin American short story, its various fantasticsub-genre s, and its exponents were compared and contrasted withtheir European counterparts and a new category “the neofantastic”emerged. Quiroga’s “Decalogue” was also fundamental in overhaulingthe process of writing itself, a responsibility Jaramillo Levi has assumedand taken very seriously in Panama during the last four decades.In the traditional sense, Quiroga and Darío, as modernists ofthe time, established the foundations upon which much of the LatinAmerican literature, including that of the double, was created. Morecontemporary interpretations and influences were yet to come andwriters such as Julio Cortázar Enrique Anderson Imbert Jorge LuisBorges Felisberto Hernández are explored in the following chapter.112