Escaping satisfaktion: Dueling violence and the German literary canon of the long 19th century

This dissertation contributes to the scholarly discussion of dueling in 19th-century German society by means of literary analysis. The study addresses the tension between the present-day German canon's image of the duel---which is argued to be nearly universally pejorative and portrayed consistently in tragic, critical, or satirical terms---and the prevailing historiographic account of a rising German bourgeoisie that enthusiastically incorporated the dueling ethos into its masculine behavioral codex. By means of close literary analysis of canonical German texts of the 19th century, this project submits that canonical narratives in fact seek to postulate viable social alternatives to compulsive dueling violence.;A vital and ground-breaking component of this study's approach to canonical German literature and drama is the re-conceptualization of an essential, yet under-examined aspect of situations involving honor insults and dueling, namely the notion of Satisfaktion. 'Satisfaktion' frequently appears in scholarly literature as a mere signifier for 'that which is demanded or given' when a socially-qualified male's sense of honor is injured. As a remedy for the widespread generalized usage of the term, this study explicitly addresses Satisfaktion at length and submits that its 19th-century conception is categorized best into three specific 'orders.' Each of these orders refers to a particular level of establishing the withdrawal of, or apology for, an insult as a means of resolving honor-related conflicts between satisfaktionsfahige males.;This dissertation's analysis of Satisfaktion---which is demonstrated to be a predominantly non-violent, yet necessary element in the development of dueling situations---is applied subsequently to canonical literature and drama. Negative, canonical depictions of dueling are evaluated in ascending order of theoretical viability as critiques of the duel. The most theoretically and aesthetically viable rejection of the duel is argued to be that literary depiction that expresses a wholesale, internally consistent refutation of the concept of Satisfaktion. The notion of 'escaping Satisfaktion' thus refers to the complete absence of ritualized honor dueling in passages where---according to modern historiography---a duel clearly is necessary for the maintenance or restoration of masculine honor. The result is a viable literary refutation of honor dueling as a social practice that is capable of being emulated by contemporary readers, as well as the postulation of a stable peace unthreatened by the prospect of compulsive ritualized violence.