He was born and grew up in Roanne, France, near Lyon, the capital of the French Résistance, and Vichy, the capital of the French Collaboration during World War II. After the khâgne in Lyon, he received his Licence and Maîtrise in Modern Literature from the Université Lyon II, and his Ph.D. from Washington University in Saint Louis. In 1985 he attended the philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s seminar on Michel Foucault in Paris. He taught for two years at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras in Tegucigalpa. He has lectured and published various articles on French literature, film and civilization. His latest book is entitled Deleuze et la littérature. He is currently working on a book on bilingual writers.