Thanatographic Automatism in Michel Leiris’ Aurora (1927–1928)

Abstract

Abstract In 1927, Michel Leiris embarked upon a five-month trip to Egypt and Greece. His text Aurora (1927–1928; pub. 1946), commenced during this journey, combines Surrealist approaches with fictional and documentary elements in an investigation of the ontological limits of the writing self. In Aurora, Surrealist automatism and elements of autobiography become epistemological demonstrations of being alive and facing the threat of impending death. Aurora experiments with thanatography, a written account of the death of the self. References to ancient Egyptian necropolis building and hieroglyphics inflect Surrealist automatism with a notion of the self as split between the living voice, death, and the multiplication of consciousness.