Vilnius University launches extensive on-line dictionary of literary terms

The online dictionary, Avantekstas, covers over 3,500 literary terms in five languages: Lithuanian, English, German, French and Russian.

The authors of the dictionary say that the name of the project, Avantekstas (Avant-text), combines a reference to modernity (avant-garde) and literary scholars’ main object of research, the text.

“Work is ongoing, we are picking and discussing terms, uploading new ones, so the dictionary is only in electronic form for now. Print version should be finite, and we are still adding so many terms that it would take 50 years to explain all of them,” said Vilnius University Professor Kęstutis Nastopka who is managing the project.

The number of people working on the project has greatly increased as new PhD students continue to volunteer for the project which was seven years in the making.

The electronic dictionary can be accessed at avantekstas.flf.vu.lt.

DELFI