Packaging Faulkner as a Cold War Modernist

Nutt Auditorium

In the first decade of the Cold War, U.S. cultural diplomats used American modernist art to sway the loyalties of leftist European intellectuals. William Faulkner was an early and eager participant in these efforts. And while “Cold War modernism” packaged Faulkner in the most anodyne, pro-American way, Faulkner’s work—and in particular his Nobel Address—gave shape and philosophical heft to the once-controversial program. The two worked in concert to reframe experimental modernism in art and literature as the highest expression of Western freedom and individualism, and to solidify Faulkner’s rapidly improving literary reputation both at home and abroad.