Preserving the brain after death: linguistic perspectives seen through a posthuman lens

As of now, there are two companies offering brain and memories preservation services by means of cryonics, one being a non-profit organization, the other being a research start-up. It has also been stated by cryonics experts that our memories and critical parts of our identity reside in the brain. The retention and preservation of self may therefore be secured through the long-term maintenance of that one organ—a procedure known as neuro-suspension or neuro-preservation (Parry 2004; 394). This study aims to analyse the language and linguistic strategies used by brain preservation providers to disseminate their (pseudo?)scientific knowledge on the matter and the means of enrolling in such programs, as well as to connect with potential donors through the computer screen. To do so, a corpus comprised of texts from selected pages of the two companies’ websites will be collected and analysed semantically. Furthermore, from a Critical Discourse Analysis perspective, the presence and expression of the topic of death will also be investigated. This is particularly interesting if we look at this subject form a posthuman viewpoint. Today’s technological society suggests that immortality is a cultural fashion as seen in life-prolonging therapies, transfer of consciousness, and cryogenic conservation. At the same time, achieving immortality changes the ontological status of the human being, assigning it with the conditions of the posthuman species (Sandu 2015; 12). The question posthumanism presents us with is how and why we have come to think about humans in particular ways and with what boundaries between human and non-human (Pennycook 2018). This has roots in the concept theorised by Foucault (1966) according to which “man is a recent invention and perhaps one nearing the end”. Through this concept and in this field, it will thus be interesting to see how the concept of death and life after it is transforming in modern day society. References Foucault M. 1996. Les mots et les choses: une archéologie des sciences humanes. Editions Gallimard, Paris, France. Parry B. 2004. “Technologies of immortality: the brain on ice”. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Volume 35, Issue 2, pp. 391-413. Pennycook A. 2018. “Posthumanist Applied Linguistics”, Applied Linguistics, Volume 39, Issue 4, pp. 445–461. Sandu, A. 2015. “The Anthropology of Immortality and the Crisis of Posthuman Conscience”. Journal For the Study of Religions and Ideologies. Volume 14, Issue 40, pp. 3-26.