THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

3.3 Reinventing the Double The Avatar in Panamatransformations into cats, owls, and doves. An aspect of Jaramillo Levi’svariation on the metamorphic tradition is the transmutation into objectsother than animals or people, and the corresponding narration from thatperspective. These other transformations can be classified into plants,the abstract, and the concrete.In their essay “Mar de máscaras: La cuentística jaramillolevianaen una resignificación desde Las Pampas”, Graciela Frachia de Coccoand Rubén Manuel Román observe:La lectura de cualquiera de los cuentosincluidos bajo el título de “Metamorfosis” nosremite a muchas de las leyendas guaraníespervivientes en nuestra región, y advertimosque esta etnia, con los nombres de caribe, tupí,abá o guaraní, estaba presente a la llegada delos europeos. 25Indeed, it is interesting to note that related to this is a pre-Columbian belief still in existence, that of nahualismo. This contendsthat an inner relationship exists between a person and their nahual(s)an Nahuatl word used to describe a person’s alter ego of vegetable,animal, human or godlike nature which accompanies the individual frombirth to death. 26 Incidentally, like susto, nahualism also lends its name toa psychiatric disorder reflecting these beliefs.In each of the stories found in “Metamorfosis”, a mutatingprocess is similarly described. Nevertheless, Jaramillo Levi'stransmutations avoid conforming to the previous standard literarystereotypes. While, there are always exceptions, in general, thetransformed new entities are not the traditional opposing orcomplementary double; they do not meet the good-evil paradigm. Thedoubling is often a result of the confusion of postmodern societalpressure and modern longed-for desire which is then externallymanifested. Some aspects of Jaramillo Levi's metamorphosingcharacters can be traced back to the origin of the double. Botany islinked historically, especially through the mandrake. 27 It is no25 Graciela Frachia de Cocco, Rubén Manuel Román, “Mar de máscaras: Lacuentística jaramilloleviana en una resignificación desde Las Pampas”, Confabulacioncreativa 72-86. 82.26Nahualism comes from the Nahuatl word nahualli "sorcerer" + -ism. Wiktionary. 2.Mar. 2008. 27 Sept, 2008. .27 Ralph Tymms refers to the mandrake as “perhaps man’s most grotesque double”.The mandrake has traditionally been the object of superstition, largely because of thesupposed resemblance of its forked root to the human figure. It was thought to havemagical powers that allowed the plant to walk and to scream when uprooted. Used inmany charms against injury and disease, the whole plant has a fetid odour. Tymms23.232