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?

They accept Thomas Gray's interpretation as being the only true account on the rebellion. Gray, a court-appointed lawyer, visited Turner in his cell before his execution and wrote a 7000-word document on the confessions of Nat Turner. But I think Thomas Gray's interpretation is his own personal interpretation, even though on its cover page it claims to be an authentic account Gray quotes Turner's own words to make the account authentic, but on the one hand Gray thinks Turner has the impression that he does not believe him and Turner says, "I see sir, you doubt my words."

8 On the other hand, Gray's account is not free from his personal bias regarding Turner's behavior. His interpretation can be the primary one, but it is neither better nor worse, neither truer nor falser than any other interpretation that has been written so far, including one from Styron's pen. What are the major points made against Styron in the subsequent essays? Styron is "trying to escape history"

9 and shows a neurasthenic, Hamlet-like white intellectual in black face,"

1

0 Styron's Turner is always "dreaming of white thighs,"

1

1 "black people rebel primarily because of an unfulfilled psychological need to be white."

1

2 Moreover Styron entered "starkly white into a black man's skin and mind,"

1

3 he lost the "religious center"

1

4 in Turner's life, he cannot understand the "Afro-American psyche."

1

5 These ten black critics were closely linked to magazines like Freedomways, Negro Digest, and Ebony, which suggests their attachment to a very important aspect of the Black Power Movement in the 1960s. This aspect is the psychological precondition for equality which "fostered a new sense of radical pride and self-confidence that helped revolutionize the black 8 Ibid., 112. 9 Ibid., 4. 1

0 Ibid., 5. 1

1 Ibid., 12. 1

2 Ibid., 19—20. 1

3 Ibid., 24. 1

4 Ibid., 28. 1

5 Ibid., 43. 36