The Interview
Class 12 English · Flamingo · Chapter 7
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English Core
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English Elective · Kaleidoscope
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English Core · Flamingo
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Physics
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History
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Hindi Elective
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Urdu Elective
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Geography
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Mathematics
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हिंदी (आधार)
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Accountancy
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اردو (اختیاری)
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Mathematics
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हिंदी (आधार)
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संस्कृतम् (केन्द्रिकम्)
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Physics
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हिंदी (ऐच्छिक)
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संस्कृत (ऐच्छिक)
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Physics
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हिंदी (ऐच्छिक)
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اردو (کور)
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Chemistry
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Urdu Elective
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Computer Science
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Chemistry
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Fine Art · Painting
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हिंदुस्तानी संगीत (गायन / वादन)
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Biology
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Informatics Practices
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Accountancy
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Biotechnology
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Accountancy
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सृजनात्मक लेखन और अनुवाद
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Business Studies
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हिंदुस्तानी संगीत (तबला / पखावज)
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Business Studies
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Economics
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Economics
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History
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History
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History
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Geography
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Geography
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Geography
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Political Science
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Political Science
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Sociology
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Sociology
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Psychology
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Home Science
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Home Science
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The story in short
This lesson is in two parts, drawn from Christopher Silvester's introduction to 'The Penguin Book of Interviews'. Part I discusses the interview as a literary and journalistic form. Since its invention about 130 years ago, the interview has become a commonplace of journalism, yet opinions on it vary greatly. Some regard it, in its highest form, as a source of truth and even an art; others — usually celebrities who see themselves as its victims — despise it as an intrusion that diminishes them, like the primitive belief that a photograph steals one's soul. The author cites writers such as V.S. Naipaul, Lewis Carroll, Rudyard Kipling, H.G. Wells and Saul Bellow, who variously condemned or disliked being interviewed (Bellow called interviews 'thumbprints on his windpipe'), while also noting that the interview is a supremely serviceable medium through which we form our most vivid impressions of contemporaries, giving the interviewer great power. Part II is an extract from Mukund Padmanabhan's interview of Umberto Eco, the Italian professor and scholar of semiotics who became world-famous with his novel 'The Name of the Rose'. Eco explains that despite his vast and varied output, he is always pursuing the same philosophical interests; he uses the 'empty spaces' or interstices of time to work, writes scholarly books in a narrative style, and considers himself a university professor who writes novels on Sundays. He regards the huge success of his serious, difficult novel as a mystery that cannot be predicted.
The interview as a genrePower of the interviewerCelebrity attitudes to interviewsUmberto Eco's viewsScholarship and fiction
Characters & key ideas
The interviewThe journalistic form whose merits and methods the lesson examines.
Christopher SilvesterThe author who introduces the history and debate of the interview.
Thumbprints on the windpipeSaul Bellow's phrase for the intrusive feel of interviews.
Umberto EcoThe scholar and novelist interviewed in Part II.
The Name of the RoseEco's serious yet hugely successful novel.
IntersticesThe empty spaces of time in which Eco works.
Extra questions & answers (board-style)
Try one from this chapter
From whose work is Part I of "The Interview" taken?