Pierre Bourdieu’s Capital: A Sociological Reading of Simin Daneshvar’s Female Characters

The Modernisation of societies resulted in the emergence of the novel which truthfully reflects the society. This article tries to analyse women’s social position in the society, before the Islamic revolution, through a sociological reading of Simin Daneshvar’s novels, including Suvashun (1969), Wander Island (Jazireh-e Sargardani) (1993), and Wandering Cameleer (Sarban-e Sargardan) (2001). Simin Daneshvar is among the most prominent contemporary novelists. Pierre Bourdieu, a French sociologist, philosopher, anthropologist, and critic views capital not only in term of economics but also from other perspectives such as culture, social life, and symbolism. In this comparative study, we have analysed the influence of capital in the lives of the female characters of each story and explored the degree to which they managed to increase it. The present article reveals that women are not very successful in acquiring all kinds of capital. Zari and Hasti, the main activists of the stories, are comparatively more prosperous than other women. They both represent ideal women in their societies; Hasti, who lives three decades after Zari, has more concrete cultural and social capital and is more dynamic in acquiring economic capital.