Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral

Jessie Redmon Fauset’s Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral recounts the story of a young Black woman in the 1920s who decides to pass as white. Ostensibly a coming-of-age story, the novel features a complex treatment of racial barriers and gender inequalities. While the trajectory of the novel is straightforward and relatively typical for the bildungsroman—young woman leaves home, discovers herself through a series of obstacles she must overcome, and finally learns how to live happily—the narrative is fraught with tensions about what it means to be Black and a woman in early 20th century America. Originally published in 1928, the novel is considered Fauset’s most important work, a notable entry in the extensive body of work produced by Black artists during the Harlem Renaissance.

The Harlem Renaissance was a profusion of Black artistic and literary achievements that grew out of New York’s Harlem neighborhood in the early decades of the 20th century. Well-known figures associated with the era include poet Langston Hughes, writer Zora Neale Hurston, jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, and performer Josephine Baker. While Fauset might be a lesser-known figure within the Harlem Renaissance, she played a significant role in its expansion as the literary editor of the NAACP’s magazine The Crisis, as well as the writer of four novels and numerous essays, short stories, and poems.