passing, the psychological effects of racial injustice,
race and the law, the accomplishments of middle-
class African Americans, and romance plots.
Fauset’s first novel, There Is Confusion, is set in
Philadelphia and focuses on the challenges sur-
rounding a highly motivated African-American
middle class in a racist society. The plot centers on
the lives of Joanna Marshall and Peter Bye, both of
whom want to be socially respected. Their ambi-
tious goals are set by their desire to make white
society acknowledge, accept, and appreciate the
strength of African-American professionals.
Plum Bun: A Novel without a Moral centers on
the story of two African-American sisters. One sis-
ter, Angela, is light enough to pass for white and at-
tempts to find fulfillment as an artist in New York
City. Fauset’s novel explores the legal, moral, and
romantic effects of Angela’s passing by portraying
her altered relationship to her sister, her unsus-
pecting friends, and the men who are interested in
her. The novel follows many artistic conventions
of the novel of manners and resolves the tension
by portraying Angela as a woman who finds her
way back to her family and community.
The Chinaberry Tree: A Novel of American Life
thematizes the history of two generations of mid-
dle-class African-American women. The story is
set in Red Brook, New Jersey, and focuses on two
cousins. One of them, Laurentine Strange, is the
child of a black woman and a married white man.
Laurentine’s cousin, Melissa Paul, also has to con-
front issues of illegitimacy when she unwittingly
almost marries her half-brother. In portraying the
lives of the two women, Fauset again critiques the
connections among racism, the law, and social
conventions.
Fauset’s last novel, Comedy American Style, re-
turns to the idea of presenting a cautionary tale
and thus motivating African Americans to take
pride in their racial background. The protago-
nist, Olivia, is extremely driven by an internalized
preference for whiteness. This fixation is so pro-
nounced that Olivia chooses her husband because
of his light skin color. To her disappointment, her
son, Oliver, is born a dark child. As a result, Olivia
rejects the son named after her and thus sabotages
herself and her family.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Christian, Barbara. Black Women Novelists. Westport,
Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1980.
Johnson, Abby Arthur. “Literary Midwife: Jessie Red-
mon Fauset and the Harlem Renaissance.” Phylon:
The Atlanta University Review of Race and Culture
39 (1978): 143–145.
Nelson, Emmanuel S. “Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882–
1961).” In African American Authors, 1745–1945: A
Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, edited by
Emmanuel S. Nelson, 155–160. Westport, Conn.:
Greenwood, 2000.
Sato, Hiroko. “Under the Harlem Shadow: A Study
of Jessie Fauset.” In Remembering the Harlem Re-
naissance, edited by Cary D. Wintz, 261–287. New
York: Garland, 1996.
Sylvander, Carolyn Wedin. Jessie Redmon Fauset: Black
American Writer. Troy, N.Y.: Whitston, 1981.
Wall, Cheryl A. Women of the Harlem Renaissance.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.
Éva TettenbornFences August Wilson (1985)
This drama is the second in AUGUST WILSON’s 10-
play cycle, each depicting a decade in 20th-century
African-American life. First presented as a staged
reading at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s
1983 National Playwrights Conference, Fences
opened at the Yale Repertory Theatre in New
Haven, Connecticut, on April 30, 1985, and on
Broadway at the 46th Street Theatre on March 26,- This critically acclaimed play won the 1987
Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as a Tony Award
and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award.
Although the final scene takes place in 1965, the
central action of the play is set in 1957 Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. Fences tells the story of Troy Max-
son, a garbage collector, whose dreams of becom-
ing a major league baseball player are shattered
by the prohibition against integrated games that
lasted until 1947—when Troy is past his prime.
Embittered by the strictures placed on African
Americans, Troy, in an attempt to protect his son,
Cory, from also losing his dreams to racism, ironi-
cally thwarts Cory’s ambition of playing college
Fences 181