The Dickinson Periodicals Project has been in progress since 1993. The aim is to study the religious, philosophical and social debates that were represented in Emily Dickinson's periodical reading (1844 -1886) The Nineteenth Century periodicals included in the study are: The Hampshire and Franklin Express, later The Amherst Record; The Springfield Daily Republican (ed. Samuel Bowles); The Atlantic Monthly; Harper's New Monthly Magazine; and Scribner's Monthly. Subscriptions to The Atlantic, Harper's and The Springfield Daily Republican ceased the month and year of the poet's death. The project demonstrates that Dickinson was actively engaged with her milieu and that her poetry comprises a dialogue with contemporary expressions of thought on a wide range of philosophical and social issues. This challenges the commonly held view that Emily Dickinson was an eccentric recluse who was isolated from her time and place.

Our study shows that there was an intimate relationship between Dickinson's poetic texts and the texts of her culture. She was responding as much to social debates as she was to her own personal or metaphysical crises. Her poems on the mind, madness and death are often cited as evidence of her own psychological state but these topics were also frequently discussed in the periodicals. The debate between science and religion that informs her poetry was also played out in the broader social theatre. Her skepticism about marriage, her experience of spinsterhood and even her plain style of dress were subjects that were also discussed in the public forum of the periodicals. Even her reluctance to publish her poetry is easier to understand when we consider the complex discourses surrounding the role of the "poetess." Women's poetry was simultaneously encouraged and denigrated throughout the periodicals.

The project has been conducted in The Department of Critical and Cultural Studies at Macquarie University, Sydney Australia and it has been funded by an Australian Research Council Large Grant 1996-1998; a series of Australian Research Council small grants and Macquarie University Research Grants. It included research trips to the Houghton, John Hay and Jones' libraries in New England.

At this stage the researchers have read all of the periodicals, produced an annotated chronological database of all articles relevant to Dickinson studies and they have an extensive archive of the selected photocopied articles. The next stage is to disseminate the findings. The aim is to produce a collection of essays on the most pertinent topics to Dickinson scholarship including transcripts of primary source material. We will also progressively release samples from the periodicals on this website. We have referred to some of the findings of the project in other publications.

Our next non-virtual appearance will be at The Emily Dickinson International Society Conference in Hawaii July 30 - August 1, 2004 where we will be presenting papers related to the project.

Joan Kirkby's paper is titled: "We thought Darwin had thrown 'the Redeemer' Away:" Emily Dickinson and the Nineteenth Century Darwin Wars. See periodical readings related to this paper.

Helen Shoobridge's topic is "The Periodical in the Attic: Contextualizing Dickinson's Vision of an Amplitude Beyond the Bounds of Marriage". Read the exciting 1858 lesbian gothic story that inspired this paper.

Helen Koukoutsis will also relate to articles from the project in her paper " The 'law of Flood': Zen Emptiness in Emily Dickinson's Language of Amplitude." See Buddhist reference.

Also see periodical reference to the Hawaiian volcano.

See conference and papers at www.cwru.edu/affil/edis/edisindex.html