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?

illustrations to the text shows Nat Turner planning the uprising; the other depicts him being captured. The expression of intrepidity on his face, his hand sturdily pointing at something and defiantly holding the dagger with which he is willing to fight against the white man bearing a gun introduce him as an exceptional man, intensifying his freedom-fighter image. Styron's interpretation about the same event is different, because in the book Nat politely requests Mr. Phipps "not to shoot"

3

2 John Hope Franklin, the outstanding black historian whose moderate tone establishes balance in his writing, analyses the aftermath of the slave revolt in his From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans. He argues that on the one hand the situation was exaggerated in many white communities and most states strengthened their Slave Codes, on the other hand white persons offered assistance and encouragement to blacks.

3

3 Comparing the lists of interpretations I conclude the following about the ramifications of my question: Firstly, on the one hand in Styron's novel history makes fiction in a way that Nat Turner is a historical figure, and for the author he is the starting point from where the Turner figure charged with Styron's imagination radiates into fictional space. The 1960s are the other factor of history which confines the historical background against which the highly fictionalized Turner is positioned. The lack of any real historical knowledge makes it possible for Styron to take liberties with his character. Thus he employs the first person singular narration, and by using this form he manages to create the personal atmosphere and the confessional mode in the novel. He portrays Turner, who has an errand, as a bachelor with all the attendant frustrations. Turner in the novel is shown as a human being torn by his doubts and fears, and his fictional projection does not fit the fictional and ideologized hero mould. The fictional extension of the character allows me to interpret him as a human being who is not necessarily black or white, and is not only from the 19th century or the 1960s. I assume that Styron identifies broader 3

2 Styron, 80. OQ 0

0 John Hope Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947) 162. 39