Introduction: Death, Dying and the Pragmeme

From a biological perspective, death takes no more than a few seconds to happen. It begins “in one failing organ of the body and then simply spreads itself, meticulously switching off the lights as it leaves each room of the body” (Kellehear 2007: 2).Nevertheless, for many of us, the thought of death is ever-present. In fact, death and dying are intriguing topics for two principal reasons.