Department of French Language, Literature and Culture
Universiteto str. 5, LT-01513 Vilnius. Mob. (0 5) 268 7232
Head of the Department – prof. dr. Eglė Kačkutė ()
Administrator – Lina Perkauskytė ()
In 1774, a French grammar intended for students at the Vilnius Academy was published. In 1797, French began to be taught as a subject of study at the university level. In the 19th century, many French professors worked at Vilnius University: doctors, sculptors, and botanists. In the 20th century, French was very popular in interwar Lithuania. In 1936, French became the first foreign language taught in Lithuanian high schools; many Lithuanians studied in Paris and at other French universities, so the Department of French Language and Literature at Vilnius University also received significant attention. The Department of French went through many different stages of development before becoming the Department of French Language, Literature, and Culture in 2022.
The Department brings together researchers in the French language, the literatures and cultures of French-speaking countries, as well as translators from and into French. The research of the members of the department focuses on:
1. Poetics and history of literatures in French, the interrelationships between literature, history, sociology, and philosophy, and their connections to systems of theory in philosophy, aesthetics, psychology, sociology, and other fields.
2. Study current cultural phenomena in French-speaking countries and their expressions, and to analyze literary and cultural ties between Lithuania and France as well as other French-speaking countries.
3. Examine the challenges of translating fiction, cultural studies, and literary theory texts into Lithuanian.
4. Conduct text-based synchronic studies of the French language.
5. Investigate the specific features of French language instruction.
6. French, Language, Literature, and Culture in the age of the AI.