  The short-period cataclysmic variable WZ Sge underwent its first dwarf nova
outburst in 23 years in 2001 July. Here we describe 905-1187 Ang. spectra
obtained with the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) during the
outburst and within the first few months after the outburst. The first
spectrum, obtained about 7 days after the outburst began and 6.4 days past
optical maximum, is dominated by a broad (50-60 Ang. EW) feature due to O VI
and can be characterized in terms of emission from a highly inclined disk
modulated by the effects of a highly ionized wind. WZ Sge is fainter in later
observations (starting about 45 days after optical maximum) and increasingly
"red" in the far ultraviolet. The spectral shape increasingly resembles that
expected from a metal-enriched white dwarf photosphere, although it seems
likely that some disk contribution remains at least through the second FUSE
observation, when the visible light curve showed the system to be undergoing a
rebrightening event. The absorption lines observed on 29 September and in early
November, when the visible light curve was in a fairly steady decline toward
quiescence, are narrow, with widths (FWHM) of order 0.7-1.3 Ang. (200-400
km/s). The most natural explanation for these spectra is that the continuum
arises from a relatively massive, slowly rotating white dwarf, and that the
lines are created by a combination of metals in the atmosphere and of absorbing
material along the line of sight to the white dwarf. If the white dwarf has
log{g}= 8.5, then the white dwarf cooled from ~25,000 K on 29 September to
23,000 K in early November.
