Faulkner the Antifascist

This chapter describes William Faulkner’s early encounter with fascism during his 1925 trip to Europe and how it influenced his politics and fiction. It outlines Faulkner’s story Mistral , in which two Americans in Benito Mussolini’s Italy suspect a fascist soldier of murder but are silenced by fear, reflecting a society where truth cannot be spoken. It also draws a parallel to the Nelse Patton lynching in Faulkner’s hometown of Oxford, Mississippi, showing how authoritarian violence thrives in silence. The chapter describes how Faulkner’s characters in novels like The Sound and the Fury and Sanctuary reveal and critique racism and antisemitism, though Faulkner himself avoided common Jewish stereotypes and slurs. It emphasizes that while Faulkner never joined political movements, his deep reading and early friendships with Jews in New Orleans contributed to a personal sensitivity to the treatment of outsiders.