Camille Stallings

Thesis Title: The Ethics of Friendship in the Victorian Novel

Supervisor: Prof. Helen Small

Situated within the History of Ideas on friendship, my thesis argues that Victorian realist novels make an invaluable — yet overlooked — contribution to a much wider (and much older) discourse on the ethics of friendship in the Western literary–philosophical tradition. To this end, I engage in-depth with philosophical forms of friendship, as expressed by Plato, Aristotle, Montaigne, Simone de Beauvoir, Blanchot, and Derrida (to name a few). I argue that the Victorian realist novel deserves a featured place in the History of Ideas on friendship. Moreover, I contend that Victorian authors were seeking to supplant residual forms of friendship in tandem with other literary forms. As such, my thesis argues that Victorian realism puts forward modern, democratic, and (at times) egalitarian forms of friendship to displace feudal, hierarchical, and (at times) patronage-based associations.

With a strong New Historicist framing, my thesis reads ‘thickly’; it works across media and genres, including the periodical press, Romanticism, satire, sketches, advertisements and political posters, and newspaper reporting. I also work with queer theory, masculinity studies, feminism, and associational history (gentleman’s clubs, parliament, friendly societies, unions, and women’s businesses).

At the university level, I have taught Papers 3 and 4; Modern British Literature; Jane Austen; Dickens; and, as a GTA, Feminist Writing/Writing Feminism (Paper 6). At the preparatory level, in both the United States and China, I have taught History (Greek, Roman, Medieval, American, AP U.S. History, English as a Foreign Language); Literature (Greek, British, European [in translation]); Aristotelian Rhetoric; and advised seniors on their theses and sat on committee panels for their public defense.

My languages, varying in proficiency, include: Greek, Latin, Classical Chinese, German, and (introductory) Japanese. My three Mas include: Liberal Arts (focus on Classical Greek); Eastern Classics (Japan, India, China; language: Classical Chinese); and British and American Literature.