In Short: William Faulkner's "Mistral" with Carl Rollyson

In 1925, William Faulkner made a pilgrimage to Europe, spending part of his time in Italian mountain towns and deciding to set “Mistral” in one of them. In his story, two Americans encounter mysterious events while Mussolini and the fascists are in power. Evidently, a murder has been committed, but no one wants to talk about it as the Americans try to piece together what happened.

The story is remarkable for the parallels that can be drawn between Faulkner’s native Mississippi in the 1920s and fascist Italy, and it has much to say about the grip of fascism on two seemingly different cultures. “Mistral” is also a prefiguration of Faulkner’s greatest novel, Absalom, Absalom!, in which Quentin Compson and Shreve McCannon attempt to solve the mystery of a murder. The discussion will center on what goes unsaid in a fascist state and how much the characters are actually able to reveal.