THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

Introducing the Double:The Seductive Paradoxdevice initially from a psychoanalytic point of view and to investigatehow it relates to the theme of identity and the concept of the self from amodern and postmodern perspective. This study will compare thetraditional development of the theme of the double in Europe and itspostmodern, non-traditional development in Latin America. The purposeis to critically review, in light of this, Jaramillo Levi’s short stories whichutilise the theme of the double and then to analyse his employment andreinvention of the theme of the double by examining and comparingclassic, modern, and non-traditional postmodern elements of doublingin his fiction. The primary texts of Jaramillo Levi’s that have been usedbegin in 1973 with the first edition of Duplicaciones (México: JoaquínMortiz), and end in 2002 with the publication of En un abrir y cerrar deojos (Alfaguara). 7It is not the intention of the thesis to add anothercomprehensive analysis of the double throughout literary historyalthough a perfunctory summary of the evolution of the double seemsappropriate as it may reveal contributing factors to its advancement.What is fundamental to this study is to scrutinise the means by whichthe concept has been applied and how. Before its development can beassessed, the origin of the double must first be examined as it is fromhere that many authors have borrowed images in use today. From thispoint, selected literature treating the same theme in a particular way willbe briefly considered and recurrent concepts in technique will be noted.In this manner a classical context will be established from which anydeviation or distortion will be evident.If the popular conception of a double as a flesh and blood mirrorimage bearing an exact physical resemblance is adhered to, thensuperficially there is not much doubling nor are there many traditionaldoubles in Jaramillo Levi’s work. The following instances ofcharacterisation would not, by this definition, be considered examples ofdoubles: Edward Hyde, the alter-ego of Robert Louis Stevenson’sHenry Jekyll, does not bear a physical resemblance to the latter; theinvisible tormenter of the narrating protagonist in Guy de Maupassant’s“Le horla” cannot be seen at all to determine his doubleness; nor arethe multiple personalities of Sybil Dorsett or Eve White ever spatiallyseen; and the physical portrait of Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray would not7 The texts in between this period include Ahora que soy él (San José: Editorial CostaRica, 1985), Caracol y otros cuentos (México: Alfaguara, 1998), Cuentos de bolsillo(Panamá: Fundación Cultural Signos, 2001), De tiempos y destiempos (Salta,Argentina: Editorial Biblioteca de Textos Universitarios, 2002), La voz despalabrada(San José: Editorial Universitaria Centroamericana, 1986), Luminoso tiempo gris(Madrid: Editorial Páginas de Espuma, 2002), Renuncia al tiempo (Guadalajara,México: Bellas Artes, 1975), Senderos retorcidos (Querétaro: Ediciones Vieira, 2001).5