THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

2.3 Dobles and Duplos: Latin American Perspectives The Avatar in Panamaestarán pegando de nuevo”. Although she experiences opposed butsimultaneous lives, the second life may be situated in the present orfuture. Alina loathes her double and fears they will meet and it willabsorb her: “En el puente la hallaré y nos mirarémos” (436). Thisimagined or projected self constantly threatens her original self. InBudapest she passes time aimlessly seeking something unknown:“anduvo por veinte lados buscando vagamente algo, pero sinproponérselo demasiado, deseando que el deseo escogiera”. Ultimatelyshe is drawn unwillingly to the centre of a Budapest bridge wherefinally, “[c]erró los ojos en la fusión total, rehuyendo las sensaciones defuera” (437). 11Jaramillo Levi’s “Rostro” features an unidentified “masa que sedoblaba”, depicted as faceless and lacking identity. She appears to be avagrant immersed in her own misfortune who is waiting for something orsomeone: “Me pareció imposible romper la distancia que separaba sumente de su cuerpo”. 12 The events in this fictional fragment arecompulsively repeated and the dichotomy of presence versus absenceexists as the protagonist is physically present but mentally distant. Thissituation is literally mirrored in “Lejana”, where Alina Reyes isphysiologically near but geographically far from her double. The irony isthat the former’s absence is more real than her presence. Theabsorption of one self by the other is a concern common to both storiesas the sapping of interiority is an aspect of doubling: “Mis encuentroscon la mujer enlutada comienzan a despojarme de energías” (26). 13 Therevelatory final line may be metaphorical or literal: “Sé que si algún díaella logra retirar de su rostro la mano crispada que esconde su dolor,las diversas angustias que he dejado a su lado se fundirán en una solapena intransferible porque en ese momento habrán reconocido mirostro” and suggests a classic identical double, like that of Alina Reyes,a projection from one person to another. Ultimately, the reader is left to11The dénouement of José Donoso’s “Gaspard de la Nuit”, also shows a fantasticexchange of identities with a beggar. The encounter with his double takes place in thewoods: “tuvo la curiosa sensación de estar grabando sobre un disco virgen, y que elotro silbido, ávido de todo lo que él tenia, iba absorbiendo todo lo suyo…era alguien.[…] una presencia se acercó a él—sintió en su sueño—y se quedó contemplándolo,como si lo estudiara para absorberlo” (255). The reverberation of the anonymouswhistling and Mauricio’s corrections all signal the imminent exchange of identity. Afterthe identity transfer with the homeless boy whose clothes fit him perfectly, he finds heis unable, provoked by a lack of need or desire to whistle; He is freed of all ties andidentity: “Y entrando en el bosque sintió que ya ni siquiera seria necesario silbarporque todo, árboles, aire, luz, encarnaba la música” (261). José Donoso, “Gaspardde la Nuit”, Tres novelitas burguesas (Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1980) 189-274.12 Jaramillo Levi, “Rostro”, Duplicaciones 25.13 See 1.2 Myself, the Other 61; and 3.3 Death, Demise, Disintegration andDisappearance 239.119