Introduction

This chapter investigates the monstrous as it acts in liminal spaces from the Renaissance through the era of Enlightenment. Monsters sit not only at the border of the known and the unknown and the natural and supernatural, but also at the border of the human and the inhuman. Monsters were really giving shape to human anxieties about change and the unknown. But as monsters were gradually pushed from volumes of science and natural history, they became more important as metaphors and potent instruments of the human imagination. Monsters and Borders in the Early Modern Imagination explores the axis where monstrosity and borderlands meet, in order to better reflect the tensions, apprehensions, and excitement over the radical changes in the early modern era. The chapter focuses on the early modern era, the period ideal for the study of monstrosity and borderlands. It also presents an overview of key concepts discussed in this book.