Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1994. [Vol. 2.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 22)

STUDIES - László Dányi: Nat Turner: History that Fiction Makes, or Fiction that History Makes?

facts as a state of grace. He asserted that the writer should not permit his work to be governed by particular historical facts.

4 Soon after the publication of the novel he gave a brief talk at Wilberforce University, one of the all-black universities in the North. In that talk he expressed his hope that "an increased awareness of the history of the Negro..., especially of Negro slavery, would allow people of both races to come to terms with the often inexplicable turmoil of the present."

5 Extremist views opposing Styron's unruffled opinion sprang up in the 60s, and they still persist Styron rejected extremity favoring black militancy and I think this might be one of the reasons why he received hostile criticism from some black critics. To some extent to him Nat Turner was the black militant of the 60s who used civil disobedience as his weapon. After some initial favorable criticism, in 1968 the first major attack came from ten black writers who published their critique of Styron's book in a collection of essays entitled William Styron's Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond. The polemic book starts with a quote from Herbert Aptheker: "History's potency is mighty. The oppressed need it for identity and inspiration: oppressors for justification, rationalization, and legitimacy."

6 Editor John Henrik Clarke's introduction attacks Styron's book for not being true to the documents, and for not describing Nat Turner's "true" character. According to the introduction, Turner's "true" character is the black rebel hero who has a wife and realizes the situation of the oppressed blacks and leads their uprising. The introduction accuses Styron of dehumanizing Turner and all the other blacks, and of presenting Turner as a stereotypical character. Subsequently all the ten black critics argue against Styron's Turner by insisting on their idea of a stereotypical "tragictriumphant"

7 hero, but they themselves hold the misconception they rebel against 4 William Styron, The Confessions of Nat Turner (New York: Vintage Books, 1993) 440. 5 Styron, 434. 6 Arthur D. Casciato and James L. W. West III, eds., Critical Essays on William Styron (Boston: GK Hall and Co., 1982) 201—202. n 'John Henrik Clarke, ed., William Styron's Nat Turner Ten Black Writers Respond (Boston: Beacon Press, 1968) 25. 35