Abstract
The cover of Nat Turner is a study in visual diachrony. Fusing two distinct styles of representation, it emblematizes a primary objective of the book to bridge chasms of his- tory and memory, fact and inference. The first style may be seen in the simplified, nearly cartoonish hand, which embodies the agent of slave rebellion. It is nondescript and rudely formed with bulbous fingernails and curvaceous palms that catch a reddish highlight. Apart from the highlights, flesh tones are a flat hue of brown; the upraised arm and knuckles are so simplified as to resemble a cut-out made of construction paper that has been affixed to the background where a second, altogether different, order of representation obtains. More detailed than the hand, the sword—like the moon behind it—is photorealistic and comprises a second order of representation.
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