![]() ![]() Such application of life-sustaining technology complicates the fundamental binary of life/death, allowing its subjects to resist textual closure. ![]() Poe’s literary performance of “undeath” therefore serves to caution real-life cases in which life support is used to sustain an individual reported to be brain-dead. Yet, their utterances “from beyond the grave” highlight the precarious nature of their position and the ethical concerns therein. The ability to transgress these boundaries bears a cost, however: both Valdemar and Jahi McMath lose the autonomy to direct their respective narratives. Through this juxtaposition, “Valdemar” comes to function as a modern fable, an uneasy herald of medical technology’s potential to create liminal states between life and death. Valdemar” and the real-life case of Jahi McMath, who was maintained on life support for over four years following a diagnosis of brain death. This paper examines the relationship between medical technology and liminal states of “undeath” as presented in “The Facts in the Case of M. ![]()
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