Appears in
Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets

By Darra Goldstein

Published 2015

  • About

fantasy worlds made of sugar and sweets are part of the folklore of societies throughout the world. These “saccharotopias” typically combine surreal and unlimited amounts of candy and other edible delicacies with a life of leisure and carefree indulgence. They are special cases of the pastoral mode, with its sunlit paradise of natural fecundity (locus amoenus) and leisure (otium). Saccharotopias often include the “natural” foods of traditional pastoral—fruit, milk, and cheese—but they focus primarily on sweets.