Worldbuilding and ‘Creative Histories’

Abstract

Ever since the professionalisation of the discipline of history in the late nineteenth century, there has been a debate that has waxed and waned amongst scholars concerning the relationship of the discipline to the world of fiction. For much of this period, the general consensus was to regard history as a social science, with some historians even going so far as to describe a ravine or gulf existing between the discipline and the world of fiction. In recent years this propensity to demarcate strict boundaries between the fields of history and fiction has diminished and, indeed, what used to be considered a ravine is probably nowadays more usefully conceived of as a distinct niche or crevice (and, thus, those operating within it could usefully be described as a ‘crevice community’, plying their craft, as it were, in the borderlands of history and creative practice). The newly-emergent field of ‘Creative Histories’ (CH) stands testament to this shift, with a central tenet being the closer collaboration between academic history and creative practice.

This paper will, first, delineate an historiographical overview of the relationship between history and fiction. I then show how the recent reciprocity between history and creative practice/fiction has led to the establishment of the field of CH. I finish by suggesting that the concept of worldbuilding – itself an under-researched topic within academia – represents an apparent area of convergence between academic history and creative fiction and, hence, a potentially productive focus of research and practice.