Abstract

Bertha von Suttner lived in fin-de siècle Vienna. She wrote her romantic novel Die Waffen nieder in 1889 and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905 for the novel’s influence on the German peace movement. This thesis looks at the effect Suttner’s gender had on the novel and its reception. As a woman writing about peace, Suttner was aware of the societal limitations placed upon her treatment of a political subject. Suttner carefully and consciously chose the novel’s genre. Her synthesis of content and form epitomizes her pacifist and feminist cause. The protagonist’s rhetorical language and the novel’s genre compliment each other by using nineteenth century assumptions about women to persuade the reader to reevaluate their contemporary notions about war.

Degree

College and Department

Humanities; Germanic and Slavic Languages

Rights

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