Jessie Redmon Fauset

Jessie Redmon Fauset (* April 27, 1882 in Camden County, New Jersey, † April 30, 1961 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American writer and journalist.

Life

Fauset was born as the seventh child of an African American Methodist pastor. She grew up in modest circumstances, but in a cultured family, went to school in Philadelphia, where he made her 1900 high school graduation at a girls' school, probably the only black student. She then studied at Cornell University, where she received her first degree in 1905. Back in Philadelphia, she could not find employment at the segregated schools. She spent a year as a teacher in Baltimore in 1906 and went to Washington DC, where she, 14 years french taught at the M Street High School, later renamed Dunbar High School. 1918 and 1919 she received her MA degree from the University of Pennsylvania and began with William Edward Burghardt you work Bois and published his magazine The Crisis. In 1919 she moved to New York City and began working as a literary editor of the magazine. In this position, she encouraged many young writers of the Harlem Renaissance, but also white authors, which dealt with racial and gender issues, and gave them a way to publication. Her four novels were published in the next twelve years, their literary productive time. She was also the editor and principal author of a magazine for black children, the Brownie 's Book. However, this was discontinued after spending 24 months ( January 1920-December 1921 ). 1921 Fauset took part in the second Pan-African Congress. In 1925/26 she traveled through France and Algeria, after she left the Crisis. In 1929, she married Herbert Harris and lived with him and her sister Helen Fauset Lanning in Harlem. In the 1940s, after the death of his sister, the couple moved to Montclair, New Jersey, where Fauset lived until the death of her husband in 1958. During this time she was no longer literary works. She moved to her step- brother Earl Huff to Philadelphia, where she died in 1961 as a result of atherosclerosis of heart disease.

Work

Fauset himself wrote poems and translated poems of Haitian authors. Them published in the Crisis; some of which were later included several times in anthologies. In her short stories characters and themes to be addressed, which treated them later in their novels detail. She also wrote many articles, reviews, reports and other non- fictional texts, which reveal a versatile knowledge and interest of the author. However, she gained lasting literary success primarily through their novels. In these she addresses the pursuit of open, honest relationships over restrictive class racial and gender boundaries; only through this reach their characters happiness and fulfillment. Her novels are on the one hand thematically and materially diverse and creative, show other hand, linguistic and formal weaknesses.

There is Confusion

Fausets first novel of 1924, she wrote to show that blacks could write even the best of the life of the blacks. Are the stories of two black middle-class families that are connected to each other through marriage. In the life story of the protagonist, so the bride and groom, the stories of friends and ancestors of the two are intertwined. Fauset describes the limited job prospects of black women and discusses alternatives to existing social norms. In addition to the discrimination suffered by blacks, another main theme of the novel is the sense of dignity and superiority, which is formed by the survival of this disease. The weakness of the novel, however, lies in the formal inconsistency and confusion, which is also caused by the large number of introduced but not developed into complex characters figures.

Plum Bun

In Fausets second novel of 1929, it focuses on a main character from whose perspective the story is told. It is a kind of Bildungsroman about Angela Murray, a young mulatto. Not the discrimination itself so here's the issue, but the way to deal with it the blacks. A native of Philadelphia, Angela has a sister, Virginia, who is dark-skinned than her. After the death of her parents she decides to go to New York and to pretend to be white, which succeeds because of their relatively light skin. She starts a relationship with Roger Fielding, a wealthy white man. Years later, as a recognized artist, she traveled to France where she reveals herself as Black and her only true love, the poor blacks Anthony Cross met again. Fauset ironically the typical narrative patterns of tales and romances: The young Angela has romanticized, misconceptions of the whites and seeks happiness in a " good game ". Therefore, she sees Fielding as a kind of "saving Prince" at; but this turns out to be the wrong man for Angela.

The Chinaberry Tree. A novel of American Life

In this novel of 1931 Fauset developed a complicated relationship history, affairs and multiracial relationships play a role in the. On the figures, it shows the different people dealing with social norms: While some accept it and seek normalcy and respect of others, others keep the emotional relationships between people in class and race boundaries upright. The novel is due to some inconsistencies in the plot viewed as a qualitative step back from Plum Bun.

Comedy, American Style

Fausets last novel was published in 1933. Central character is Olivia Cary, a black woman who hates their own race and be white in all circumstances or want to be considered white. She has a husband and two children, the three all suffer from their "Color Mania ". As she is expecting a third child, they projected their longings to this child and names the boy to himself, so Oliver. Three people are destroyed by their madness: Oliver commits suicide early, the daughter Teresa is forced to marry a man unloved, and Olivia even die lonely and bitter. Only her husband Christopher and their older son Christopher Jr. recover from the emotional damage that Olivia has done. A counter-model to Olivia's handling of race identity designs Fauset with the figure of Phebe. It stands to their origin and refuses a wedding with a white man. She later marries who freely choose to Christopher Jr. to her is shown that although there are no simple dealing with their own racial identity is, it can still be accepted, however, and needs.

German Poetry transmission

  • Hanna Meuter: America I also sing. Seals of American Negroes. Bilingual. Hg and Übers zus with Paul Therstappen. Wolfgang Jess, Dresden 1932. With short biographies. Series: The New Negro. The voice of the awakening of African- America. Volume 1; Revision 1959 ibid. pp. 52 -. 53 ( poems "We wear the mask" & " Life" ), and Introduction, passim

Source

  • Carolyn Wedin Sylvander: Jessie Redmon Fauset. In: Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol 51 Farminton Hills: Thomson Gale 1986 pp. 76-86.
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