Polly S. Fields, Ph.D.

Current projects include two books in progress, one comprising a study of social dramas during 1730-37, an unexplored drama series at London's Little Haymarket Theatre, on the poor and underrepresented. This study bridges the 100-year period between Dekker's social impulses on stage and the late 18th-century works of Inchbald and others.

Her second book incorporates social aspects of eighteenth-century theological rhetoric. The manuscript is currently titled "The Rhetoric of Decency: Interrelativity Between Anglican Commemorative Sermons and the Impulse Toward Social Engineering in Mid-Eighteenth Century England." The project examines the idea of rhetorical decency in sermons as part of the social and economic engineering aimed at marginalized groups in the middle-to-late eighteenth century. Her work incorporates definitions of the new decency impacting on selected novels and drama of the period.

Projects also encompass two bespoke articles: "Visionary Sermons of 14th - 17th-century European Mystics"; "Samuel Johnson of Chester: Staging Operas at the Little Theatre."

Employing research at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library and the Cartwright Collection, she is completing another essay drawn from her work on sermons, "Identity and Impact: Theological Import of the Lady Moyers Lectures," which explores the foundation fo the lecture series, and traces it through the 18th- and 19th-centuries.

Research in 2003-2004 included work on books and articles during the months of June, July, and August at Scripps Library, UCLA Special Collections, and Huntington Library. The research continued study of sermons, notably on the mystics and Medieval charity sermon manuscripts. Other research involved trips to Hekman Library, Calvin College and Calvin Theological College and the facilities of University of Toronto Library.

A Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities in the Summer Seminars at St. Deniol's and Selwyn College, Cambridge University, Summer 2002, she conducted research at Cambridge on pre-Reformation Charity sermons and festivities, to bring forward her book, "The Tropes of Decency." An article derived from the research on the pre-Reformation Feast of the Fool is currently circulating.

Presentations during summer 2002 through summer 2004 included a presentation at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, July 25-28, "Politicizing the Romantic: Felicia B. Hemans, The Blackwood Review, and the Irish Troubles," presented with permission of the National Endowment for the Humanities Grant Committee. In October 2002, she gave a presentation before the Mid-West Eighteenth-Centry Conference, Southwest Missouri University, Springfield, in addition to organizing a panel and charing: "Holy Visions: Sermons as Early Modern Spectacle." In January 2003, she presented before the British Society, Oxford University, speaking on "Political Firebrands: Felicia B. Hemans and Eliza Sophia Tomlins, Political Activists." Conference presentations spring 2003 - summer 2004 during the period include:

2004

"Peering Through the Hole in the Canvas: Native-American Women as Iconographs." American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Boston, Massachusetts. March 24- 28, 2004.
"The Beguines: St. Hildegard of Bingen, as Mystic, Prophet, and Theosophist." IATL International Association of Theology and Literature, Le Moyne and Syracuse Universities, Syracuse, New York. May 19 - 25. (Calendar Withdrawal)
"Sturm und Drang of The Play Within, The Life Within: Charlotte Charke and Framing the Subliminal Self on Stage." Goethe Graduate Institute, University New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. July 24 - 28, 2004. (Calendar Withdrawal)

2003

"'Tell No One Your Story': Alienation, Exile, and the Penitent Prostitutes at the Magdalene Asylum." Eleventh Congress of the Enlightenment. UCLA, Los Angeles. August 3-10, 2003.
"Printed Rebellion: Felicia Hemans And/In the Edinburgh Review ." SHARP The Printed Book Society. Scripps College, Claremont Graduate Schools, Pomona California. July 7-12, 2003.
"Political Firebrands: Felicia B Hemans and Eliza Sophia Tomlins, Political Activists." British Society, Oxford University. January 3-6, 2003.

Other Continuing Projects

Her essay, "'My Bold Voice': Jane Johnston Schoolcraft and Muzzeniegun or The Literary Messenger," is currently on the publisher's desk. Part of Fields's interests in Chippewa-Ojibway pictographs, the essay cites the 1826 magazine and the contributions of Jane Schoolcraft, who impacted post-Colonial identification of Indians through study of Ojibway lore, myths, and poetry. At the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Summer 2001, Fields conducted library and field research on local pictographs, in order to place in larger framework the Ojibway pictographs.