THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

2.3 Dobles and Duplos: Latin American Perspectives The Avatar in PanamaJaramillo Levi’s work but with seminal European literature in the genre,seemingly seldom used in comparative studies despite its accreditationfor the theme of the double.It would be remiss to discuss Latin American doubles without aliterary representative from the continent’s largest country. The Brazilianinclusion in this study tends towards a postmodern model of doublingand metafiction in Chico Buarque’s contemporary novel, Budapeste.The universal theme of life imitating art storyline, creation of literature,the reproduction of texts, ghostwriting, and divergent cultural identitiesare represented.Second Nature: Julio CortázarJulio Cortázar incorporated fantasy into fiction and exploited thesuppressed reality of the other side of the mind. He questioned theliterary process itself, dismantled narrative conventions, andencouraged the reader to penetrate texts in pursuit of a fullness ofmeaning. 2 The fantastic elements employed by Cortázar include thepresentation of the unusual and inexplicable within normalcircumstances; the unexplained intrusive presence in “Casa tomada” isan example. There are also many types of mutations andmetamorphoses in Cortázar’s work. Literary characters are transformedand doubled and in the case of “Axolotl” this is done by division and isprovoked by a loss of identity. This mysterious transmutation is proofthat the change need not be into the same species as the original.Doubling may also occur through duplication as it does in “Lejana”which features identical doubles due to personality interchange as isseen in “La isla a mediodía”. Reincarnated doubles and recreations ofthe past constitute the central characters in “La flor amarilla” and “Lasarmas secretas”. Myth and legend become magical as in “La nocheboca arriba”, and time is often distorted and fused as in thesimultaneous and alternating realities which exist in “Todos los fuegosel fuego”. Some stories play out between the world of dreams,nightmares, and wakefulness. Literary planes and the imagined oftenbecome indistinguishable from reality as happens in “La continuidad delos parques” and, again, in “La isla a mediodía”. 3 As Julio Cortázar isJaramillo Levi’s single greatest influence, considerably more examplesof his writing have been scrutinised in this section given that histechniques and concepts are originally reflected in the Panamanian’snarrative.Cortázar’s versions of changelings and dead ringers appear in“Axolotl” and “Lejana”. His tale of zoological regression “Axolotl” recalls2 Williamson 550.3 Malva E. Filer, Los mundos de Julio Cortázar (New York: Las Americas, 1970) 27.114