Quick Links:

Michael Flachmann
Professor of English
Director of the Hawk Honors Program

Contact Information: Office: Faculty Towers 201D Phone: 661-654-2121 Fax: 661-654-2063 Email: mflachmann@csub.edu Areas of Specialization and Interest: Shakespeare Renaissance Literature Dramaturgy

Michael Flachmann, Professor of English and Director of The Hawk Honors Program at California State University, Bakersfield, earned his B.A. at the University of the South, his M.A. at the University of Virginia, and his doctorate at the University of Chicago. He has written eight books--most recently Shakespeare: From Page to Stage (2006), Beware the Cat: The First English Novel (Huntington Library Press), The Image of Idleness: England's First Epistolary Novel, Shakespeare's Lovers, Shakespeare's Women, Teaching Excellence, and The Prose Reader: Essays for Thinking, Reading and Writing (with his wife, Kim Flachmann, now in its eighth edition)--and over eighty articles in such journals as Shakespeare Quarterly, Studies in English Literature, English Literary Renaissance, Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England, Studies in Philology, and others. He has also worked for many years in professional theatre, serving as dramaturg for over ninety Shakespearean productions at such prominent west-coast theatres as the Oregon Shakespearean Festival, the La Jolla Playhouse, California Institute of the Arts, and the Utah Shakespearean Festival (where he has been company dramaturg since 1986). In 1993 he was selected Outstanding Professor for the entire twenty-campus California State University System, in 1995 he was named "U.S. Professor of the Year" by the Carnegie Foundation in Washington, D.C., and in l999 he was given a $20,000 Wang Family Excellence Award for outstanding undergraduate teaching in the CSU. Flachmann's avocations include Judo, a sport in which he is a fifth degree black belt, and tennis.

Special Courses

• Shakespeare

• Renaissance Literature

• Medieval and Renaissance Drama

• Bibliography

• Judo and Self Defense

• Camp Shakespeare at the Utah Shakespearean Festival

• Hawk Honors Program

Books

• Shakespeare's Lovers (1982)

• Shakespeare's Women (1986)

• Beware the Cat: The First English Novel (1988)

• Teaching Excellence: A Collection of Essays on College Education Written by Recipients of the California State University Trustees' Outstanding Professor Award (1998)

• The Image of Idleness: England's First Epistolary Novel (1990)

• The Brief Prose Reader (co-authored with Kim Flachmann, 2003)

• The Prose Reader (eight editions, co-authored with Kim Flachmann, 2007)

• Shakespeare from Page to Stage: An Anthology of the Most Popular Plays and Sonnets (2006) 

Selected Articles

• "Ben Jonson and the Alchemy of Satire," Studies in English Literature (Spring, 1977)

• "Epicoene: A Comic Hell for a Comic Sinner," Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England (Spring, 1984)

• "Teaching Shakespeare Through Parallel Scenes," Shakespeare Quarterly (Winter, 1985)

• "All Corners of the World: Spatial and Moral Geography in Cymbeline," On Stage Studies (1989)

• "Fitted for Death: Measure for Measure and the Contemplatio Mortis," English Literary Renaissance (Spring, 1992)

• "Changing the W's in Shakespeare's Plays," Teaching Shakespeare Today (1993)

• "Suit the Action to the Word: Teaching Minds and Bodies in the English Classroom," Inspiring Teaching: Essays by Carnegie Foundation National Professors of the Year (1997)

• "Reading Shakespeare (and Other Unnatural Acts)," Teaching Shakepeare into the 21st Century (1997)

• "Macbeth on the Couch," Shakespeare Bulletin (2000)

• "Cymbeline in the Wooden O," Journal of the Wooden O Symposium (2002)

• "Measure for Measure: From Design to Production," Journal of the Wooden O Symposium (2003)

• "Parrot, Parody, and Paronomasia: Damnable Iteration in Henry IV, Part I," Journal of the Wooden O Symposium (2004)

• "Great Teachers and Dead Sharks," The Art of College Teaching (2005)

• "Acting Shakespeare," Journal of the Wooden O Symposium (2007)

Awards

• Phi Beta Kappa (1964)

• CSUB Outstanding Professor (1992)

• California State University System-Wide Outstanding Professor (1993)

• Carnegie Foundation United States Professor of the Year (1995)

• Phi Delta Theta Fraternity "National Distinguished Alumnus Award" (1997)

• $20,000 CSU Wang Family Excellence Award (1999)

• CSUB Faculty Research Award (2000)

• CSUB Faculty Service Award (2002)

Special Interests

• Playing Tennis

• Teaching Judo

Department Homepage | Faculty & Staff | Graduate Program | Undergrad Program
Composition Program | Centers & Publications | Student Activities | Schedule of Courses

Copyright 2005-2006 CSUB Department of English
Questions? Comments? Contact the webmaster