Solitude and the Quest for Happiness in Vladimir Nabokov's "American Works" and Tahar Ben Jelloun's Novels

The Author: After receiving his «Licence d'Anglais» and his M.A. in American literature from the University of Poitiers, France, Bernard R. Périssé, Assistant Professor of English at Nihon University, Japan, also obtained his M.A. in French literature, and his Ph.D. in English at Kent State University, Ohio. He has published and is currently writing articles on French, American, and comparative literature.

"Périssé studies the diverse failures of characters who abandon their native lands, languages, and cultures for the so-called 'better life' of the modern West (whether this be the France of Tahar Ben Jelloun's novels or the United States of Nabokov's 'American Works'. The author creates compelling comparisons of the themes of exile, solitude, and despair as 'Post-Colonial' issues in fiction. Périssé singles out Ben Jelloun's descriptions of the victimization of women in Muslim social groups and contrasts these with the subtle manipulations of female characters in 'Pnin', 'Lolita', and 'Ada'." (Thomas Jensen Hines, Professor of Comparative Literature, Kent State University, Author of 'Collaborative Form: Studies in the Relations of the Arts' and 'The Later Poetry of Wallace Stevens')
"Not only does this highly original reading of such novels as the sensational 'Lolita' and Ben Jelloun's 'L'homme rompu' probe the private, alienated self, Périssé's comparison of the two culturally diverse novelists reveals the social and moral backgrounds in which the self battles with life. This book serves as a model of poststructural, postcolonial intertextuality and interauthoriality that enlighten contemporary cross-cultural visions." (Yoshinobu Hakutani, Professor of English and University Distinguished Scholar, Kent State University, Author of 'Richard Wright and Racial Discourse' and 'Young Dreiser')