Desencuentros en un proyecto nacional: El último juego de Gloria Guardia

This article analyses the ideological inconsistencies which undermine the ideological tenets about Panama presented by the narrators of El último juego. The analysis of these discrepancies focuses on two levels: the public and the private. The public space is mostly concerned with the Panama Canal. The private space focuses on the relationship of the protagonist with the two women in his life, who symbolize different options for the nation, neither of which is viable, for contrasting reasons. Having analysed these different national alternatives, the article proposes the existence of an implicit narrator which not only removes the canal problem as a national project from its central focus, but implies a revision of social and sexual codes of behaviour by the dominant group within Panamanian society.