THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

1.2 Fantastic Psychoanalysis and the Doppelganger The Avatar in Panamaof heteronymic as opposed to pseudonymous work. 95 Pessoa claimedhe always had a tendency to create unreal characters and that his firstliterary heteronym, Alberto Caeiro, sprang from a trance-like stateduring which he began writing and did not stop until he had pennedover thirty poems. 96 What is outstanding is that each heteronym had itsown biography, developed a particular, recognisable writing style, andcontributed to specific literary editions; Pessoa not only doubled hiscreativity, but multiplied it:Na verdade, a ideia de «heterónimo»corresponde a um desejo de desdobramentosem identidade: é exactamente umarepresentação, através de diferentespersonagens, de diversas faces da mesmaindividualidade original, ou, então, a expressãode diferentes conceitos da vida de uma mesmapersonalidade. 97The central theme of Mário de Sá-Carneiro’s work was that ofpersonality crisis, a concept which contributed to his own confusionabout the distinction between art and life. Eventually, it becameimpossible for Sá-Carneiro to determine where one ended and the otherbegan, as is the case with many literary characters in fiction of thedouble. “Eu-Próprio O Outro” is Sá-Carneiro’s finest example ofaddressing the theme of the divided self or stranger within. 98 The storyis comprised of journal entries written by an unstable character whosedouble is a corporal manifestation of the relation between theprotagonist’s eu (I) and his other, ele (he): this ultimately culminates intheir death. The protagonist’s initial encounter with his double occurs ina café where it appears seated opposite him at a table simultaneouslyengaging him in conversation. When the character speaks during his95 Octavio Paz elaborates: “What Fernando Pessoa writes belongs to categories ofwork which we could call orthonyms and heteronyms. It cannot be said that they areanonymous or pseudonymous because they really aren’t. The pseudonymous work isby the author in his own person, except he signs it with another name; theheteronymic work is by the author outside his own person” (9). Octavio Paz,“Introduction: Unknown to Himself”, Trans. Michael Schmidt, A Centenary Pessoa, 1-20.96 In an example of multiplication rather than doubling, Caeiro was followed by RicardoReis, Álvaro de Campos and Bernardo Soares. A Centenary Pessoa, 215-216.97 “Actually, the idea of the ‘heteronym’ relates to the desire to become double withoutan identity: it is an exact representation of diverse sides of the original individualitythrough different characters, or rather, an expression of the different notions of lifeaccording to one personality”. João Gaspar Simões, Fernando Pessoa: Breve históriada sua vida e da sua obra (Lisboa: Difusão Editorial, 1983) 31.98 Mário de Sá-Carneiro, “Eu-Próprio O Outro”, Céu em Fogo: Oito Novelas (Lisboa:Relógio D’Água, 1998) 163-177.62