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Some Useful Literary Terms in Italian

I GENERI: genres

  • la poesia / la lirica: poetry / lyric poetry
  • una poesia: a poem
  • un verso: verse; line
  • una strofa: stanza
  • la rima: rhyme
  • un poema (epico, pastorale, cavalleresco,ecc.): longer (often narrative) poem (epic, pastoral, chivalric)
  • la prosa / la narrativa: prose / fiction
  • un romanzo: novel
  • una novella/un racconto: short story (first term usually refers to works up to 19th century; second to 19th-20th c. works)
  • un paragrafo: paragraph
  • una frase / un periodo: phrase / sentence
  • una riga: line
  • un saggio: essay
  • un trattato: treatise
  • l’epica: epic
  • Il dramma / il teatro: drama / theatre
  • una commedia : comedy
  • una tragedia : tragedy
  • un atto : act
  • una scena: scene
  • un dialogo : dialogue
  • un monologo : monologue
  • una battuta : line
  • una didascalia : stage direction
  • una parte / a solo : aside

il cinema

  • un film il soggetto: subject
  • il trattamento: screen treatment
  • la sceneggiatura : screen play

I PERIODI:

  • Il Duecento : 1200s / 13th c. Il Medioevo : Middle Age
  • Il Trecento : 1300s
  • Il Quattrocento : 1400s
    • L’Umanesimo
  • Il Cinquecento : 1500s
    • Il Rinascimento
  • Il Seicento : 1600s
    • Il Barocco (la Riforma, la Controriforma
  • Il Settecento : 1700s
    • L’Illuminismo (il Neoclassicismo)
  • L’Ottocento : 1800s
    • Il Romanticismo
    • Il Realismo (il Naturalismo il Verismo)
  • Il Novecento: 1900s
    • Il Decadentismo
    • Il Crepuscolariso
    • L’Ermetismo
    • Il Futurismo
    • Il Modernismo
    • Il Postmodernism

TERMINOLOGIA PER LA DISCUSSIONE

DI UN TESTO

  • l’autore / l’autrice : author
    • [autore reale vs autore implicito] real author vs implhied author
  • il lettore: the reader
    • [lettore reale vs lettore implicito]: real reader vs implhied reader
  • il / la protagonista : protagonist
  • i personaggi : characters
  • il narratore / la voce narrante: (not to be confused with the author) narrator / narrative voice
  • la trama / l’intreccio : plot
  • l’ambientazione : setting
  • il senso letterale / il senso figurato : literal meaning / figurative meaning
  • il linguaggio : language
  • lo stile : style
  • l’argomento : theme, topic
  • un’immagine : image
  • un motivo : motif, theme
  • monologo interiore : interior monologue (stream of consciousness)
  • punto di vista : point of view
  • un mito : myth
  • un simbolo : symbol

ALCUNI TERMINI DI RETORICA O FIGURE

Some rhetorical terms or figures (Quoted definitions from Richard Lanham, A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms)

  • metafora : metaphor (an implied comparison between two dissimilar things; an anaolgy that identifies rather than, as with simile, likeness: "Life is a bowl of cherries").
  • allegoria : allegory.("Extending a metaphor through an entire speech or passage.")
  • similitudine : simile ("One thing is likened to another, dissimilar thing by the use of like, as , etc.; distinguished from metaphor in that the comparison is made explicit: 'My love is like a red, red rose.'")
  • allusione : allusion, hint, indirect reference.
  • parodia : parody (humorous imitation of an author's style or thematics)
  • ironia : irony ("Expressing a meaning directly opposite that intended.")
  • paradosso : paradox ("A seemingly self-contradictory statement, which yet is shown to be true: 'She makes the black night bright by smiling on it.'")
  • ossimoro : oxymoron ("A condensed paradox." Ex.: " a bittersweet love")
  • personificazione : personification ("An animal or inanimate object is represented as having human attributes or addressed as if it were human.")