THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

Concluding Remarks: the Paradox in PanamaThe Avatar in PanamaConcluding Remarks: the Paradox in PanamaLa verdad es que la razón profunda de mi gusto por el tema del doble en realidad nolo sé explicar. Excepto que sea una cuestión inherente a mi propia personalidad, a mipropio carácter. Acaso por ahí esté la respuesta.Enrique Jaramillo LeviThe double has proven itself to be an enduring and relevantcurio, the basic tenets of which developed through folklore,psychoanalysis and postmodern theory. The literature of the double isabout the frailties of the self, the crises of identity, or the absence ofidentity altogether. In Jaramillo Levi’s literature, identies are expressedand experimented with through various means which come from manydisciplines and areas of literary theory. Mirrors and metamorphoses,simultaneity and atemporality, fantastic exchanges of identity, projecteddoubles and multiples, madness and misidentification, all of thesesymbols and concepts hark back to the classic and traditional, nomatter how postmodern the structure or context is around which theyare worked. The physical aspect of the double may alter but its essenceremains. Still a threat to the self, yet no longer the paradigm of goodversus evil, the universal story of the double now has a Panamanianchapter.Enrique Jaramillo Levi is indeed the epitome of a paradoxpersonality. His essence is embodied in his writing to the extent that it isimpractical to extricate the man from his work: they are impossiblyintertwined. As an artist, he is inventive and derivative, original yetfamiliar. His high profile as a writer over the years has ensured heremains the subject of many articles and sought after for numerousinterviews. This has invariably led to more than a few verbalcontradictions. As variations of those remarks which still exist, thesecontradictory statements are Jaramillo Levi’s alternative responses tothat which has been already written or uttered. They are duplicationsthemselves; postmodern palimpsests almost.Jaramillo Levi states specifically that he did not read any fictionfeaturing the double as a theme before he wrote Duplicaciones, nor didhe read any theoretical books about this field of literature. He alsoclaims not to have researched the genre either. The author himselfbelieves that this is significant and that it contributes to the originalflavour of his work. Later however, in one of Romero Pérez’s interviews,he renounces the suggestion that he considers himself original at all, asevidenced in section 3.3’s epigraph. 11 “Nunca me he propuesto ser original, simplemente trato de ser diferente, y porsupuesto fiel a mí mismo, a mi visión del mundo, a mis obsesiones, a mis propósitos,sueños o terrores.” Romero Pérez, “Un escritor de largo aliento” 106.260