Paracosm

A paracosm is a detailed imaginary world involving humans and/or animals, or perhaps even fantasy or alien creations. Often having its own geography, history, and language, it is an experience that continues over a long period of time: months or even years.

The concept was first described by a researcher for the BBC, Robert Silvey, with later research by British psychiatrist Stephen A. MacKeith, and British psychologist David Cohen.

Examples of paracosms include Gondal, Angria, and Gaaldine, the fantasy kingdoms created and written about in childhood by Emily, Anne, and Charlotte Brontë, and their brother Branwell, and maintained well into adulthood. Their contemporary, Hartley Coleridge, created and maintained the land of Ejuxria all his life. Austin Tappan Wright's Islandia began as a childhood paracosm as did M.A.R. Barker's Tekumel. Another example is Borovnia, the fantasy kingdom created by Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker in their mid-teens, as portrayed in the film Heavenly Creatures. The modern fantasy author Steph Swainston's world of the Fourlands is another example of an early childhood paracosm. Henry Darger began writing about the Realms of the Unreal in his late teens and continued to write and illustrate its epic adventures for decades.

Paracosm

See also