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?
Hie essence of this superiority lies in the speculation that episteme is rationalized and proven. Thus the historians and the literary critics try to validate their opinion by immersing it into historical knowledge. This view cannot be sustained in relation to the Turner figure because the list of opinions is the best example of how fiction can be created out of history, and thought to be history. The historians mentioned here strive to cling to facts like the Gray document, but they ignore the fact that it is personal. They emphasize egalitarian views, but, paradoxically enough, according to the novel Gray firmly believes in the "basic weakness and inferiority, the moral deficiency of the Negro character." 3 5 Or do they agree with Gray but only from the other perspective? Fourthly, I assume that the common element both in fiction and in history is that both the debate over the book and the transformation of Nat Turner in history in the 1960s designate the beginning of an important phase in the emancipation process of black people, which in the 1980s and 1990s peaks in the harmful side effects of political correctness 3 6 and multiculturalism, which try to monopolize the legacy of the 1960s, and in doing so have become the apotheosis of segregation. My supposition is that Styron's work might concur with Diana Ravich's opinion in the assertion that "the United States has a common culture that is multicultural." 3 7 In line with historians, the critics attack Styron's description of Turner's sexuality, and by rejecting the possibility for a white man to understand the black psyche they resort to counter-racism by automatically excluding whites from the blacks' world. The question arising here is whether it is possible to fight against racial discrimination by emphasizing egalitarian views and simultaneously proclaiming racial pride, segregating groups. The voices of black militancy were growing louder in the 1960s when integration of blacks became a widely accepted national objective, and black Americans had every reason to redress the historical balance. It is small wonder that Styron's dispassionate interpretation proved to be 3 5 Ibid., 84. 3 6 See —Robert Hughes, Culture of Complaint The Fraying of America (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1993). 3 7 Schlesinger, 135. 41
