Networking Dickinson: Some Thought Experiments in Digital Humanities

Abstract

The most important and influential digital approaches to Emily Dickinson’s writings to date have focused on curating and presenting the singularity of her work through careful encoding of close textual detail, rather than on the kinds of large-scale, data-driven analytical and interpretive projects that increasingly drive work in the digital humanities. While sites like the Dickinson Electronic Archives and the new Emily Dickinson Archive have made aspects of Dickinson’s manuscript writings widely accessible over computer networks, scholars have yet fully to “network” Dickinson; that is, we have yet to explore whether digital approaches might help researchers map out and better understand her writing, its historical conditions of possibility, and its circulation within its surrounding literary and cultural economies. This essay argues for the value of developing new digital approaches aimed at networking Dickinson, in tandem with the ongoing projects of digital curation.