Colonialism and Slavery in Performance: Theatre and the Eighteenth-Century French Caribbean

with the meaning of race and resistance. There is little deep or rigorous engagement with Black intellectual history here, and as such Tomlins, much like Styron, is not able to truly understand Nat Turner or further illuminate his role in history. In his preface, Tomlins explicitly invites his readers to ‘assume your own critical standpoint in relation to the layers of narrative you will encounter... it is... for you to make of it whatever you wish’ (p. xi). Having done so, I can only conclude that while this book has a number of critical insights in its opening chapters, and provides a thought-provoking meditation on history, those wishing to understand the ‘actual Nat Turner’ in his own context should look elsewhere.