THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

2.3 Dobles and Duplos: Latin American Perspectives The Avatar in Panamade Janeiro. 54 José Costa is a ghost writer who creates a bestsellingfalse autobiography. During an unplanned stopover in Budapest, hebecomes smitten with the Hungarian language so much so that hetemporarily abandons Brazil and his family and returns. José embarksupon a love affair with his language teacher Kriska who brings himcloser to Hungary, Budapest, and the possibility of a new life whichJosé believes will only begin when he forgets his native Portuguese.After mastering Hungarian, José Costa creates a second name, identityas a poet, and then proceeds to fluctuate between the two women,poetry and prose. Costa continues writing biographies and poetry forother authors to assume.Superficially, the doubling in Budapeste takes several forms:Costa is bi-lingual and has dual residency. His name is doubled in that itis hungarianised and inverted, Kósta Zsoze. His editor mouldsapprentice writers in his style duplicating him in a sense. Costa’s sisterin-lawis an identical twin, and the interior text of Budapeste appears onthe outside cover of the novel. 55 When Costa returns to Rio after alengthy sojourn in Budapest he concludes: “tive a sensação de haverdesembarcado em país de língua desconhecida, o que para mim erasempre uma sensação boa, era como se a vida fosse partir do zero”(120). 56 The final chapter of Buarque’s narrative “escrito aquele livro”,takes place in Budapest to which Costa has just returned for a pressconference for a book launch. It begins with a physical description ofthe book that Costa fails to recognise as his own work: “eu nãoentendia a cor daquela capa, o título Budpeŝt, [sic] eu não entendia onome Zsoze Kósta ali impresso, eu não tinha escrito aquele livro. Eunão sabia o que estava acontecendo, aquela gente á minha volta, eunão tinha nada que ver com aquilo” (131). 57 Nevertheless, Costa beginsreading aloud the first sentence of the first page; “Devia ser proibidodebochar de quem se aventura...”. It becomes evident that this book heis reading aloud is the very book the reader has been reading up until54 “Budapeste é a historia de um escritor dividido entre duas cidades, duas mulheres,dois livros e duas linguas [...].” ‘Budapeste is the story of a writer divided between twocities, two women, two books, and two languages […].’ Chico Buarque, Budapeste(Lisboa: Dom Quixote, 2003). Blurb/dust jacket. All Portuguese to English translationshave been undertaken by the author of the thesis.55 Duplicaciones (4ed) features a painting on its cover: Alter-Ego by Luis Cruz-Azaceta.56 “I felt as though I had disembarked in a country that didn’t speak my language,which for me was always a good feeling, it was as if life was starting from scratch”.57 “I didn’t get the colour of the cover, the title Budpeŝt, I didn’t understand the nameZsoze Kósta printed on it, I hadn’t written that book. I didn’t know what washappening, why there were people all around me, I had nothing to do with any of this”.138