İnsanoğlunun XVIII. asrı idrak etmesi ile birlikte, geleneğin dünyasından ve onun yönlendirici otoritesinden kopartılarak veya kurtarılarak özgür bir dünyaya çekildiğinden bahsedilir ki bu dünyanın adı günümüzde “modern dünya” olarak nitelenmektedir. Bu manada modern dönemin başlaması ile geleneksel dönem sona erdirilmiş; son üç asır da gelenek ve modern dünyaların çekişmesine ve mücadelesine terk edilmiştir. Kabul ettiğimiz bir gerçektir ki, son üç asır bütün dünyada büyük değişimlerin yaşandığı asırlar olmuştur. Tarım toplumundan sanayi toplumuna, köyden şehir hayatına, imparatorluktan ulus-devlet sistemine, halktan millete, ülkeden vatan anlayışına, kuldan vatandaşa, emperyalizmden kapitalizme, oligarşiden cumhuriyete ve daha niceleri bu son üç asırlık süreçte cereyen etmişlerdir. Ancak şu da unutulmamalıdır ki gelenek sınırlandırılamaz. En modern dönem bile insanın üretme geleneğinin ürünüdür.

In The Myth of the Female Hand: Forms of Female Power, Şeyda Sivrioğlu explores the symbolic representations and the significance of the female hand as a means to open up literary and critical space for the oppressed and marginalized female figure in different centuries and in different patriarchal cultures and genres. Inalterably, in a culture where creativity is defined purely in male terms, women “exist only to be acted on men, both as literary and sensual objects” (Gilbert and Gubar, 8). This comprehensive study, however, traces the origins of the female hand symbolism from a fairy tale to a play-text and finally to a science fiction novel in order to illustrate how, to borrow Margaret Atwood’s words, the hand as an extension of the brain, in this case the female brain, becomes an important tool for indicating the development of the power of women.

Neo-colonialism is a crucial topic often discussed in international politics, economy, and literary studies. World War II and the end of official/physical colonialism have led to new strategies practiced by the imperial powers in international relations to continue their former colonial legacy and expand further the area of their interest. They never left their legacies in the former colonies but strived to pursue their exploitive desires under various guises.

Neo-colonialism and literature may be closely associated because they reflect social, economic, and political characteristics simultaneously. This book defines and exemplifies neo-colonialism in literature through Graham Greene, who illustrates the workings of neo-colonialism in formerly colonized countries through his novels that blend reality with fiction.

Sylvia Plath and Nilgün Marmara… Two female poets of distinct geographies, cultures, societies and periods followed a life with distinct sufferings and scars, but they produced similar poetries with the same wish and outcry for death. And in the end, both poets said their last words in the face of life through suicide. Indeed, there is this passionate bridge between these two poets since Marmara was a keen admirer of Plath’s poetry and art.

And today, standing on this very bridge, this book renders a detailed comparative reading and analysis on their poetry within the context of the psychoanalytical perspectives to death and self-destruction. Through the psychoanalysis of their poetical lines that are intermingled with pains and traumas centered around the obsession of death and self-destruction, this book traces and unearths the mutual poetical mechanisms of the unconscious and the human psyche that turn the poetry of both poets into ‘art of dying’ as in the wording of Plath and ‘swan songs’ as in the wording of Marmara. Psychoanalyzing their poetic personas in their ‘art of dying’, this book highlights how Plath and Marmara became both the victims and the victors of their ‘swans songs’ via various psychological scars and existential dilemmas.