Cash, Cash, Cash : A Comparative Reading of Jane Austen's Lady Susan and Tone Shunnesson's Days & Days & Days

This essay is a comparative analysis and explores how the two protagonists, from the novels Lady Susan (1871) by Jane Austen and Days & Days & Days (2020) by Tone Schunnesson, uses lies and manipulation in a scheme to take back what they once had: money and social status. The theoretical starting point used is Pierre Bourdieu’s capital theory which is expanded with Carolyn Betensky’s interpretation of Dominick LaCapra’s usage of the phrase ”symbolic capital”, that she coins as a guilt economy, as well as Dana Kaplan and Eva Illouz’s four categories of sexual capital. In examining these two characters, from two very different times, their (lack of) different kinds of capital are revealed along with how they use them to their advantage. The essay is divided into three parts; the first being focused on establishing the protagonist in Lady Susan’s capital and how she uses them, the second being the same but applied to Days & Days & Days and the third is a comparative analysis between the two. Through this analysis this essay establishes how, even though the two women use similar tactics by taking advantage of what little, or illusion of, capital they inhabit, only one of them succeeds in increasing their original capital. The protagonist from Days & Days & Days finds herself in a time where women can do well in attempts to take control of their own narrative, whereas in Lady Susan women do not have the same authority over their own destiny.