THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

1.2 Fantastic Psychoanalysis and the Doppelganger The Avatar in Panamageographical and architectural schisms of the modern city. Thematerialisation of the double was often provoked by the traditionaltheme of isolation which the character may manifest by speaking aforeign language; becoming immersed in another culture; indulging indrugs and alcohol; or living in a split society where double standardsand multiple sets of values are the norm. 34 This type of segregation isconducive to the division of the self as in solitude one ponders the kindof person one could be, yet in the company of others one forgetsoneself. The individual then recognises two selves: the unconscioussocial self, and the authentic self which others have been scrutinising.Hawthorn concludes then that identity is made rather than endowed andits making can take different forms between which one must choose(85).The recurring characteristic of the double used in theexploration of identity and the fiction of duality often emerged inresponse to exterior pressure on the individual who experienced it, notjust interior angst (60). The source of duality was no longer only insidethe person but outside although surely the external and internal coexistsymbiotically and this is postmodern (89).During the Gothic fin-de-siècle, the city became a metaphor forduality and oppositions like day-night, wealth-poverty, and beautyugliness.The paradoxical anonymity of these overcrowded centresallowed characters to indulge, or at the very least, explore their hiddendesires usually resulting in the expression of an otherwise hidden darkside and a second secret life. The city also provided an ideal setting inwhich a literary personality could divide or disintegrate virtuallyunnoticed and allowed them to re-project their repressed selves backinto society. This link between urbanisation and modernity is ironic asthis scenario also becomes representative of the fragmentation of theself in the postmodern realm: in order to be one, one must be amongmany and so the multitude is never avoided.Arguably the two most terrifying and enduring tales of doublingand metamorphosis, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Stevenson’s Jekyll andHyde, had their genesis in the dream world. 35 Dracula is a modernGothic tale written in diary form whose inspiration came from a dream inwhich Stoker was set upon by vampires, a dominant male in particular.According to Christopher Frayling, protagonist Hawker is Stoker’sdouble in the novel which features doubling and character pairing, as34The main argument and link between the case histories and literary analyses is theclaim that if an individual is brought up and has to survive in an environmentconstituted by contradictory systems of value, then he will become internally dividedunless external contradiction are clearly recognised. Hawthorn 135.35 In another similarity, the reader is also unaware Jekyll and Hyde are the sameperson until later in the novella; nor is it clear in Dracula that the Count is a vampire.46