Faulkner, Jews, and the New Deal: The Regional Commitments of ‘Barn Burning’

In ‘Barn Burning’, Faulkner portrays a South beleaguered by two threats emblematic of modernity: diasporic pooulations and powerful central government. Abner Snopes, who displays many stereotypically Jewish characteristics, embodies an ethnic threat to Southern culture. On the other hand, the iconic embodiment of Southern values in the story, the de Spain mansion, can be seen as a counterthrust against attempts by New Dealers to deploy architectural monumentality in their effort to forge an explicitly national identity. ‘Barn Burning’ repulses racial and cultural incursions in the name of anti-modern regionalism.