THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

1.2 Fantastic Psychoanalysis and the Doppelganger The Avatar in Panamais told Anayansi is in his classroom (and the inference is that he is too),might indicate that in reality he has gone nowhere at all.Perplexity and confusion are the first reactions of thisprotagonist in his confrontation with his double. As far as the device’sportrayal goes, the climax is similar to that in “El esposo”. In “La tardedel encuentro”, Valverde finally sees his object of desire:la vi bajar conversando animadamente con unhombre alto, bastante joven, rubio, de saco grisy pantalón negro, que llevaba un maletín oscurobajo el brazo. Pensé que sería, a no dudarlo,alguno de los nuevos profesores que el colegiodebió haber empleado cuando yo y otroscolegas nos ausentamos con el fin de realizarestudios de postgrado en el exterior (44).This is a feasible assumption as there is no physical descriptionof Valverde, and the only face mentioned in the story is that ofAnayansi. He remains in an agitated state however, “[h]aciendoesfuerzos insólitos por calmar la emoción que ya crecía”, andapproaches the couple: “Ambos me miraron. Me siguieron mirandointerminablemente. Yo al principio sólo tenía ojos para verla a ella […],[a]l fijarme en él, me vi mirándome, perplejo”. 119 In this case, not only isthe doubled character stunned into an inert state, the love objectcollapses equally stupefied. It is then that the doubled character’sessence acts independently of him; his own being is propelled into thatof the identical other:Yo sentí de pronto que mis impulsos sedesplazaban, que inexplicablemente entrabanen aquel cuerpo idéntico al mío que ya seagachaba sobre mi amada, que le dabacachetadas en las mejillas pálidas, haciendocaso omiso de la inercia que se habíaapoderado de mi ser tornándolo frágil.(44-45)What has all the hallmarks of an archetypal story of duplicationends with a postmodern twist as there is an absolute disintegration ofthe self “hasta la transparencia” (44-45).“Ahora que soy él” (ASE), narrates the interior monologue ofanother anonymous lovesick man whose objective is to physically andpsychologically substitute the deceased lover of his beloved Magda. 120119See The Scapegoat 65.120Jaramillo levi, “Ahora que soy él”, Ahora que soy él (San José: Editorial Costa Rica,1985) 17-21.70