In his introduction, Eradam makes clear his critical method of reading. He rejects the validity of what he calls “being a literary detective”* who tries to reconstruct the inner world and psychology of the artist by unveiling the “mystery” of the text (10). In this respect, Eradam believes in the relative autonomy and independence of the work of art from the artist.
The book consists of three main chapters: “The Making of Sylvia Plath,” “Themes in Plath's Poetry,” and “Plath's Poetic Technique.” In addition, there is a helpful section of notes, and also a selected bibliography on Plath.
The first chapter focuses on, as it investigates how Plath became a poet, what Eradam believes to be the underlying dynamic and problematic of Plath's art: confronting the self. After this initial stage, this problematic takes various shapes, at various times, as re-defining the self, oscillating between multiple selves, attempting to unify this multiplicity, and transcending the limits of the self. In the second part of the chapter, Eradam discusses the influence of the modernist tradition on Plath's art through common images, symbols, and themes.
The second chapter elaborates on symbols and images already mentioned in the previous chapter, and traces them to Plath's various poems. Eradam also analyzes how those images come to relate to Plath's three themes, namely time, death and oddities of nature.
In the third and final chapter, Eradam convincingly argues that not only the contents of Plath's individual poems but also their forms and techniques reflect the changes in her inner world.
A professor of American literature (at Ankara University), a translator (whose works include the translation of Plath's Ariel), and a poet himself, Eradam brings a lively interplay of these three perspectives into his book. The poet's voice takes over the other two facets of his personality in the open letter addressed to long-gone Plath, on the occasion of the would-have-been-60th birthday of “Sivvy.” Opening with the words “I'M GLAD YOU WERE BORN,” Eradam's letter testifies to the intensity of his feelings for a poet so far away in space and time. Such a relationship becomes so burdensome that Eradam cannot but close his letter as follows:
* All translations of Eradam’s text are mine.