Title: Nigger, the Speaker: An Interpretation of the Re-creation of the Historical Figure in The Confessions of Nat Turner

Abstract: Slavery in the United States reduced slaves to ciphers or nonbeings, who were simply regarded as part of the décor of white life uncredited with human thought or sensibilities, or with the possession of a private self. William Styron, believing it inhumane to do so, writes The Confessions of Nat Turner with the historical event of Nat Turner’s Rebellion as its subject matter so as to re-create and bring alive that black man. The novel unfolds in quasi-autobiographical first-person narration with Nat Turner the nigger telling his life story. In the process of narration, Nat Turner mainly makes use of alternating modes of narration, commentary, and interactional positioning to construct his narrative identity, and his existence is thus manifested. Hence, “nigger” as the misrepresented nonbeing has secured his subjectivity, and transformed into “nigger” the speaker, fulfilling the re-creation of the historical figure.

Keywords: slavery, Nat Turner, The Confessions of Nat Turner, narrative identity, speaker, re-creation

Author: Chuanfang Zeng, Professor, MOE Training Center for Overseas Study, Sichuan International Studies University, Chongqing, China.