Storytelling, books and film

The twelfth entry, l’anticipazione, is a false friend that anyone reading Italian criticism meets early. In Italian it names a thing inside the text: a detail set down at the start that quietly announces what is coming, the rain in the first paragraph that turns out to be the ending. English calls that « foreshadowing », and it keeps « anticipation » for something else entirely, the state of the person who is waiting. The two words therefore sit at opposite ends of the same moment — l’anticipazione is what the author placed on the page, « anticipation » is what the reader feels in front of it. Because the Italian noun points at the text and not at the reader, it travels easily into the language of television and publishing: le anticipazioni della prossima puntata are the scenes shown ahead of the next episode, and le anticipazioni sul finale are what a newspaper lets slip about the ending. English needs « previews » for the first of those and « spoilers » for the second, and « anticipation » would name neither.