THE AVATAR IN PANAMA - Theses - Flinders University

2.1 The North American Double The Avatar in PanamaInterestingly, in “One Trip Abroad” the couple-double is not introducedin order to substitute the other-double, which indeed was Hoffman’sunique employment of the device in “The Doubles”. 45This double-couple concept appears in Jaramillo Levi’s“Duplicaciones”. There appears to be four characters but the duplicationof a pair of characters soon becomes apparent. In “Duplicaciones” thereare two Li Pengs, Señora Torres, and Señorita Corrales are the players.Even the cars –Mustangs- are also doubled. Jaramillo Levi’s doubledcharacters in “Duplicaciones”, unlike Fitzgerald’s but like Hoffmann’s,are substituted but prior to that do exist independently. 46“Duplicaciones” belongs to two types of genre: the fantastic asthe inexplicable is a theme and detective fiction as it develops anespionage plot. It deals with mistaken identity and puts forward thepossibility of one’s double leading a parallel existence. 47 The storyevokes repetition: the structure is cyclical and repetitive in that pursuingor following is evident from the first line which provides a doublebeginning as two characters and two present tense verbs arementioned: “No es la primera vez que aquel hombre pasa frente a ella”(38). The present tense here expresses simultaneity; there is asynchronicity of actions while thoughts and questions are being posedat once by different characters.While there is no outright simultaneous confrontation of thedoubles by the original characters, there is a thought process theprotagonist experiences which leads her to the conclusion of theirexistence. Initially, the female narrator of “Duplicaciones” trusts herinstincts; she is certain of what she is witnessing: “pero no, no puedeser […], [r]ecuerda perfectamente […], [n]o comprende cómo estehombre sabe que ella sigue a Li Peng y confunde, sin embargo, sunombre”. As people and places become more confused she then starts45 E. T. A Hoffmann, “Die Doppeltgänger” (1822). Hoffmann’s “The Doubles” is filledwith references to opposites and doubles with supposed mistaken identity being thepremise for the story. The protagonist is constantly referred to by someone else’sname, and the Other’s handwriting is identical to his own, as is his voice. A forest iswhere he experiences his double and becomes substituted. The character entertainsthe concept of the other: “it is very certain that I have a second ego, a doppelganger,who pursues me, who wishes to do me out of my life and rob me of my Natalie (287)”.“And what, he said to himself, if Natalie- love’s beautiful dream, who has always beena premonition in my life, should only belong to him, my unknown doppelgänger, mysecond ego, what if he should rob me of her, if all my desires, all my hopes, shouldremain forever unfulfilled?” (290). “The Doubles”, Selected Writings of E. T. A.Hoffmann: The Tales. vol 1. Leonard J Kent, and Elizabeth C. Knight, eds., trans.(Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1969) 272-315.46 Jaramillo Levi, “Duplicaciones”, 38-40.47 The doubles act without knowing they are doubled which is a testament to thenature of the espionage business – that no-one’s identity is safe or decisive. Mosier,“Caja de resonancias” 147.88