Introduction

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the notion of the “counterhuman imaginary.” The counterhuman imaginary directly acknowledges the “imaginary” nature of claims of human representation and human authority, in order to discover the “counterhuman” disruptions that are generated out of or alongside those claims through the self-efficacy of the other-than-human. As a disruptive or counterintuitive experience, the counterhuman presents a persistent challenge and opportunity for explication and for methodological innovation. The chapter details that the book looks at affect theory, posthumanism, new materialist theory, and environmental or geohistorical criticism. The book tests the analytical opportunities provided by the notion of the counterhuman imaginary by focusing on a diverse set of influential literary texts from the early eighteenth century in England. It illuminates the status of the counterhuman imaginary at a significant moment in the history of humans, animals, and the geographical and environmental realm—a moment that involves what is often understood as the constitution of human modernity.