THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

3.3 Reinventing the Double The Avatar in PanamaJaramillo Levi's “Historia de espejos” (CC), and Hoffmann’s “A NewYear’s Eve Adventure”. 58In the extended double beginning of “Vergüenza”, the series ofevents in the first half occurs in the present tense, for the reader, that is.However, for the narrator Jane, the American wife of Miguel, the eventsshe is recounting have happened in the past. It is not until the reader istold: “[o]ye un chasquido. […] Se ve nuevamente en el consultorio”, thatit is apparent she has been in a state of hypnosis guided by a doctor(185). Jane’s recollection is of a traumatic taxi trip resulting in hersupposed rape and subsequent murder of the offender, a familiarscenario in Jaramillo Levi's fiction. Suspense is built within the narrativeas it is staggered so that not all is revealed until further into the story.Her memory of this event is punctuated by several other circumstancesrelating to other sexual incidents (having sex with her husband in theback of a car), and a previous sexual assault (by more than one man),when she was fifteen.The male psychologist, previously unknown to her, eventuallymanipulates Jane and her behaviour to produce an outcome of whichhe takes advantage. After repeatedly telling her that what she fears is“que el pasado se haya repetido, tal vez con su consentimiento, tal vezno” (185), she begs to finalise the session. The doctor warns: “deboadvertirle que revivir algo así tan pronto es capaz de producirle unfuerte sentido de culpa después, en caso de comprobarse sussospechas”, but she is adamant: “Hipnotíceme, doctor. Hágamerecordar hasta el final. Necesito saber si en realidad me defendía, o sifue por vergüenza, más que nada, que lo maté” (188). The doctorproceeds:iba deslizando sugerencias, introduciendoconvenientes matices en los hechos que denuevo ocurrían. Al llegar a la escena en que eltaxista pone las manos sobre sus hombrosobligándola a voltearse, la mujer las sientepresionándoselos con una fuerza que,inexplicablemente, no corresponde a lascircunstancias (189).The clicks arouse Jane from her mesmerised state to witnessthat her one action has had a combined effect in two temporal zones:Llegó a ver, horrorizada, cómo la mano delmédico deja de moverse en el aire, desciendecon torpeza sobre su cuerpo múltiples veces58 Hoffmann is discussed in 3.1 Looking-Glass Literature and the Loss of Likeness,164.251