I Close My Eyes, and I Travel: Imaginary Travel in Susan Sontag’s Play Alice in Bed

Abstract

Susan Sontag’s 1993 play Alice in Bed focuses on Alice James, a historical figure from the 19th century who, despite having a privileged education and lifestyle, was unable to fulfill her own dreams. She lived in the shadow of her novelist brother Henry James and her other famous brother, psychologist, and thinker William James. Drawing from Alice James’ diaries published posthumously, Sontag breathes life into her, concentrating on the times when she was bedridden in her sickroom in London, having struggled with illness for most of her life. The sixth scene of the play is set entirely in Alice’s mind and depicts an imaginary journey to Rome. This scene can be considered as a distinct genre in literature, is privileged in narratives of imaginary travel, and points to the efforts a socially very precarious woman in the 19th century made to construct an autonomous identity. © 2024, Istanbul University Press. All rights reserved.