ABSTRACT
The Austrian writers Minna Kautsky and Bertha von Suttner are perhaps better known for their politics than for their fiction. Suttner's Die Waffen nieder! and Minna Kautsky's Stefan vom Grillenhof transform political discourses into art in order to communicate the ideological commitment of the authors to the wider readership. Minna Kautsky's novels are particularly important as works of political fiction, and had a lasting impact on the development of the genre of Socialist realism. The extensive and realistic depiction of war and its aftermath in both these novels is a powerful attack on the way in which industrial nations resolve their conflicts. As a peace campaigner, Bertha von Suttner had to move away from the primacy of emotional arguments against war and embrace the rational discourse of a 'science' of pacifism, making the case for establishing a league of nations for conflict resolution.
