''The Dissertation'' is a novel by R. M. Koster, part of the

Tinieblas trilogy Manuel Leal (born June 8, 1939), better known as Tinieblas ("Darkness"), is a Mexican luchador. Professional wrestling career Tinieblas began as a body builder and stunt man who was spotted by luchadores Black Shadow and Dory Dixon. Impressed ...

. The book is a mock-PhD thesis, written by the son of the dictator of Tinieblas, recounting his father's rise and fall in a satire of academic prose, while the footnotes narrate the sad life of the doctoral candidate, in the manner of

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov ( ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian and American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Rus ...

's ''

Pale Fire ''Pale Fire'' is a 1962 novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is presented as a 999-line poem titled "Pale Fire", written by the fictional poet John Shade, with a foreword, lengthy commentary and index written by Shade's neighbor and academic co ...

''. ''The Dissertation'' makes an appearance in the 2013 Stephen King novel ''Joyland'' where it is being read by the character Annie Ross.

References

1972 American novels {{1970s-novel-stub