Imaginary Voyage: Constructed Reality in Eric Overmyer's On the Verge; or, the Geography of Yearning

abstract: This essay examines Eric Overmyer's 1988 play On the Verge: or the Geography of Yearning in the context of the Imaginary Voyage, through the ways that imaginative travel functioned as a tool of empowerment and identity construction for 19th-century women. Using texts such as Herodotus's Histories and Strabo's Geographies as well as Victorian women travel-writers like Lucie Duff Gordon and Mary Kingsley as lenses to examine Overmyer's language-centric comedy, the article positions the play within the framework of the Imaginary Voyage and provides a road map for the creative imagination required for a contemporary feminist journey.