Clifford Flanigan (August 2, 1941 – October 27, 1993) was an American professor of English, medievalist, and theatre historian.

Life and career

Charles Clifford Flanigan grew up as an only child in Baltimore, Maryland, in a family descended from German and Irish immigrants. He graduated from

Baltimore City College Baltimore City College, known colloquially as City, City College, and B.C.C., is a college preparatory school with a liberal arts focus and selective admissions criteria located in Baltimore, Maryland. Opened in October 1839, B.C.C. is the thir ...

a year early, at the age of 16. Seeking to become a Lutheran pastor, he began theological studies at Concordia College in

Bronxville Bronxville is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States, located approximately north of Midtown Manhattan. It is part of the town of Eastchester. The village comprises one square mile (2.5 km2) of land in its entirety, ...

, New York and then continued them at

Concordia Senior College Concordia Senior College was a liberal arts college located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and affiliated with the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). It was founded in 1957 and closed in 1977. The senior college was a new type of institution for th ...

Fort Wayne Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

, Indiana. His master's degree was granted by

Concordia Seminary Concordia Seminary is a Lutheran seminary in Clayton, Missouri. The institution's primary mission is to train pastors, deaconesses, missionaries, chaplains, and church leaders for the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). Founded in 1839, t ...

near

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, Missouri, in 1967. Although a Protestant, Flanigan followed the Catholic

liturgical year The liturgical year, also called the church year, Christian year or kalendar, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and whi ...

with interest and observed many

saints' days The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

and feasts in a private manner and also by visiting Catholic churches. He began studying

Comparative Literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

and Medieval history at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

while still at seminary. After deciding against entering the ministry, he enrolled full-time in doctoral studies at Washington University. When, in 1973, he completed his dissertation on the origins of liturgical drama, he was already employed as a junior professor at

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana University and, with ...

's program in Comparative Literature. An article excerpted from his dissertation, received a prize from the

Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until c. 1980) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes ...

in 1976. Flanigan was a gifted teacher. After his unexpected and early death, his students and colleagues organized two symposia in his honor, 1994 in Bloomington and 1995 in

Kalamazoo Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...

. Flanigan's research was considered by many medievalist colleagues of the time to be unconventional and progressive, because he applied ideas from recent

Critical Theory A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...

to medieval topics. As a

dramaturg A dramaturge or dramaturg is a literary adviser or editor in a theatre, opera, or film company who researches, selects, adapts, edits, and interprets scripts, libretti, texts, and printed programmes (or helps others with these tasks), consults auth ...

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''Di ...

, and

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

, Flanigan was devoted to staging medieval dramas, for instance the Passion Play from the

Carmina Burana ''Carmina Burana'' (, Latin for "Songs from Benediktbeuern" 'Buria'' in Latin is a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent ...

, which was performed in Bloomington and New York City. He collaborated on a total of nine such performances.Clüver, In Memoriam C. Clifford Flanigan (as cited above), p. 25.

Selected books written or edited by Flanigan

* ''The Fleury "Playbook". Essays and Studies'', ed. C. Clifford Flanigan, Thomas P. Campbell, Clifford Davidson (Kalamazoo 1985). * ''Liturgical Drama and Dramatic Liturgy. A Study of the Quem queritis Easter Dialogue and its Cultic Context'' (Ann Arbor ichigan1981).

Literature about Flanigan

* Claus Clüver, In Memoriam C. Clifford Flanigan, 2 August 1941 – 27 October 1993, in: ''Papers by and for C. Clifford Flanigan: The Ritual Life of Medieval Europe'', ed. Robert L.A. Clark. ''Romard'' 52–53 (2014), p. 23–26, esp. p. 23–25. * ''Liturgy and the Arts in the Middle Ages. Studies in Honour of C. Clifford Flanigan'', ed. Eva Louise Lillie–Nils Holger Petersen (Copenhagen 1996).

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flanigan, Clifford 1941 births 1993 deaths 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Historians of theatre Dramaturges American medievalists Baltimore City College alumni Indiana University Bloomington faculty Washington University in St. Louis alumni Concordia Seminary alumni 20th-century American male writers