What do modernity, multimedia and morality have in common? They constitute more than
a dozen topics addressed in the latest issue of Symposium (Heldref Publications, 2009), a
quarterly journal edited by members of the Department of Languages, Literatures and
Linguistics (LLL) in Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences. For more than six
decades, LLL has played a leadership role at Symposium, growing it into one of the world's
leading periodicals on modern literatures. Contributions, often comparative in scope,
examine literary texts written in languages other than English. They include peer-reviewed
essays on works by Dostoevsky, Kafka, Eco, Bertolt and others.
Amy Wyngaard, associate professor of French, succeeded Professor Emeritus Augustus
Pallotta as executive director in 2007. It's no accident that Wyngaard, whose area of
expertise encompasses 17th- and 18th-century French literature and culture, welcomes
contributions from fellow Francophiles. The current issue, for example, features a critique on
mainstream modernity by Larry Riggs (Butler University), who devotes space to Montaigne,
Shakespeare, Cervantes, Moliere and Bourdieu. Other articles include assessments of works
by Camus and Rousseau, written by Vincent Gregoire (Berry College) and Diane Brown
(Macalester College), respectively, along with an in-depth account of a Brazilian sex worker-
turned-memoirist by George Carlsen (Pepperdine University). The journal also publishes
essays on a variety of German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Latin American and Yiddish
themes.
Wyngaard says that Symposium's raison d'etre complements that of LLL, in that it
promotes diversity and transcultural understanding throughout campus. She credits
Symposium's vitality to LLL chair Gerlinde Sanford, who supervises contemporary German
and Austrian submissions, and to five other SU professors who comprise the editorial board.
They are Gail Bulman (Latin American literature and theater), who doubles as the journal's
book review editor; Kathryn Everly (contemporary Spanish narrative); Ken Frieden (Hebrew
and Yiddish literature); Harold Jones (Medieval and Golden Age Spanish literature); and
Pallotta (Italian Romanticism and Post-War narrative). Symposium also benefits from 17
associate editors from top research institutions around the country, including Yale
University, the University of Chicago, Rutgers, Penn State, the University of Wisconsin, the
University of Illinois, the University of Texas and the University of California-Irvine.
Currently, more than 400 institutions worldwide subscribe to the journal.
Symposium is published four times a year. Print and online subscription rates vary from
individuals ($62-$65) to institutions ($162-$195). More information is available at
http://www.heldref.org/pubs/sym/about.html.
LLL offers graduate and undergraduate programs in French, Spanish and linguistic studies.
The department also provides undergraduate programs in Italian, German, Russian and the
classics; studies in Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Polish, Tamil and Turkish; and training
in English as a second language. For more information, visit
http://thecollege.syr.edu.
