THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

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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
1.2 Fantastic Psychoanalysis and the Doppelganger The Avatar in Panamawell as mixed multiple narration, and shifts to and from locale. Doublingin Dracula involves duplication in the form of a human reproduction orvampire which itself is a double being, a cross between bird andmammal. 36 This vampirism may also be a metaphor for one’s selfabsorbing the other as in Jaramillo Levi’s “Oscilaciones”, Mário de Sá-Carneiro’s “Eu-Próprio O outro”, Guy de Maupassant’s “Le horla”, andHoracio Quiroga’s “El almohadón de plumas”. 37Robert Louis Stevenson’s Gothic shocker, The Strange Case ofDr Jekyll and Mister Hyde, portrays the double at its most nightmarish. 38In the novella, the protagonist’s chemically-conjured alter-ego forces theother to endure a duplicitous lifestyle. Said to have “exposed theconflicts and tension within the author himself”, the story represents thedivisions between the conscious and unconscious, the public andprivate, and Stevenson’s relationship with his father. 39As the quintessential conception of the double, though not theprototypical incarnation, Jekyll and Hyde presupposes man’s moraldualism and, to depict this division, Stevenson employs literary devicespopular during the German romantic tradition. Jekyll and Hyde’s dualexistence resembles Hoffmann’s alternation of personality insofar asthe portrayal of troglodytic Hyde is as a heinous double embroiled in amoral mêlée with the well-respected Jekyll. The language of polarisedopposites is extended to descriptions of the divided city and theirrespective dwellings from Jekyll’s “pleasantest room in London” toHyde’s “dismal quarter of Soho […] a district of some city in anightmare”. 40 Incidentally, although London constitutes the backdrop forthe tale, it is acknowledged the city described is, in fact, Stevenson’sdisguised Edinburgh, a city split into a respectable new town and an36 “Dracula’s Bram Stoker”, About Us, RTE, 22 June, 2003. dir Sinead O’Brien.Christopher Frayling.37 For more on Quiroga see 2.2 Uruguay’s Answer to Poe: Horacio Quiroga, 105; fordisintegration of the self in Jaramillo Levi’s fiction, see 3.3 Death, Demise,Disintegration and Disappearance, 239.38 It is Stevenson’s story “Markheim”, however, which represents his first attempt atthe double motif before he experienced the dream which produced Jekyll and Hydewhose inspiration sprang from a vivid nightmare he experienced during a three-dayfever. By his own account, dreams played an integral part in his writing and providedthe bases for several of his stories. Ian Bell, Robert Louis Stevenson: Dreams of Exile(Edinburgh: Headline, 1993) 190-191, 270.39 Stevenson led a double existence of his own: a respectable life as failedengineering and law student, and a secret life as a frequenter of sordid bars andbrothels away from home. “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”, Nightmare: The Birth of Horror,BBC TV, 1996. narr. and dir. Professor Christopher Frayling.40 R. L. Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the Merry Men andOther Stories (Hertfordshire: Wordsworth, 1993) 1-54. 12, 17.47
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3.1 Shoes and Mirrors: Images of Do
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3.2 Double Whammy: Mixed Doubles Th
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3.3 Reinventing the Double The Avat
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Concluding Remarks: the Paradox in
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Appendix A1:Double-Speak: Interview
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Appendix A2:Dentro de los zapatos:
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Appendix B: Enrique Jaramillo Levi:
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Appendix C:Thematic Taxonomy of Dou
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List of Works CitedThe Avatar in Pa
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