| Acknowledgements | 第1-7页 |
| Abstract in Chinese | 第7-12页 |
| Abstract in English | 第12-19页 |
| Chapter I Introduction | 第19-40页 |
| A. The background of William Styron’s literary creation | 第19-22页 |
| B. William Styron and his literary creation | 第22-29页 |
| C. William Styron’s historical novels: The Confessions of Nat Turner and Sophie’s Choice | 第29-36页 |
| 1. The Confessions of Nat Turner | 第29-32页 |
| 2. Sophie’s Choice | 第32-36页 |
| D. The significance of studying William Styron’s historical novels | 第36-40页 |
| Chapter II. History and the Reconstruction of History | 第40-73页 |
| A.“History”and “the past” | 第40-58页 |
| 1. The definition of “history”and “the past” | 第40-44页 |
| 2. Problems of representation | 第44-58页 |
| B. Fiction: an alternative to represent the past | 第58-63页 |
| 1. Literature and history | 第58-61页 |
| 2. Historical fiction | 第61-63页 |
| C. William Styron’s reconstruction of history | 第63-73页 |
| 1. Humility—William Styron’s mode of historiography | 第63-68页 |
| 2. Interaction and complicity—William Styron’s new paradigm of history | 第68-69页 |
| 3. Return, reconciliation and redemption—Styron’s strategies in reconstructing history | 第69-73页 |
| Chapter III. Reconstructing the Common History of White and Black people—The Confessions of Nat Turne | 第73-137页 |
| A. Nat Turner in the traditional historical narratives | 第73-78页 |
| B. Nat Turner in The Confessions of Nat Turner | 第78-125页 |
| 1. Styron’s subversion of Gray’s “Confessions” | 第78-80页 |
| 2. Styron’s Nat Turner in pursuit of freedom and identity | 第80-125页 |
| C. The reconciliation between the white and black: the voice of the 1960s | 第125-137页 |
| 1. Nat Turner’s redemption | 第126-131页 |
| 2. William Styron’s redemption | 第131-137页 |
| Chapter IV. Reconstructing the Unspeakable History of the Holocaust—Sophie’s Choice | 第137-174页 |
| A. Silence—the most fitting response to the Holocaust? | 第137-140页 |
| B. Reconstructing Sophie’s history | 第140-153页 |
| 1. The story of Sophie as a victim | 第142-146页 |
| 2. The Story of Sophie as an accomplice | 第146-149页 |
| 3. The consequences of Sophie’s Auschwitz experience | 第149-153页 |
| C. Juxtaposing Auschwitz with the quotidian | 第153-162页 |
| 1. The story of Stingo, a young man who is preoccupied with his self-centered concerns | 第154-157页 |
| 2. The story of the narrator, the mature self of Stingo who connects the twdisparate worlds | 第157-162页 |
| D. Defining the evil of the Holocaust in pursuit of redemption | 第162-174页 |
| Chapter V. Conclusion | 第174-179页 |
| Appendix I | 第179-182页 |
| Appendix II | 第182-184页 |
| Works Cited | 第184-195页 |
