Class 12 English — Chapter 7: The Interview

What you'll learn

• ▸The Function and Perception of Interviews
• ▸Celebrity Aversion to Interviews
• ▸The Interviewer's Power and Influence
• ▸Contradictory Stances on Interviewing
• ▸Umberto Eco's Multifaceted Career
• ▸The Concept of 'Interstices'
• ▸Eco's Narrative Academic Style
• ▸Eco's Identity as a Scholar
• ▸The Success of 'The Name of the Rose'

Chapter Summary

--- PAGE 1 --- 12074CH07 7 The Interview From the Introduction to The Penguin Book of Interviews edited by Christopher Silvester. About the Author Christopher Silvester (1959) was a student of history at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He was a reporter for Private Eye for ten years and has written features for *Vanity Fair*. Following is an excerpt taken from his introduction to the *Penguin Book of Interviews, An Anthology from 1859 to the Present Day*. Part I Since its invention a little over 130 years ago, the interview has become a commonplace of journalism. Today, almost everybody who is literate will have read an interview at some point in their lives, while from the other point of view, several thousand celebrities have been interviewed over the years, some of them repeatedly. So it is hardly surprising that opinions of the interview — of its functions, methods and merits — vary considerably. Some might make quite extravagant claims for it as being, in its highest form, a source of t…

Practice Questions from this Chapter

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1. Define effective communication. Get Solution →
2. Maximize waiting time? Get Solution →
3. Research interview techniques. Get Solution →
4. According to the text, the interview became a commonplace of journalism a little over how many years ago? Get Solution →
5. Who is the author of the introduction from which this chapter's excerpt is taken? Get Solution →
6. Which author was said to have had 'a just horror of the interviewer' and never consented to be interviewed? Get Solution →
7. Who described interviews as being like 'thumbprints on his windpipe'? Get Solution →
8. In Part II, who is interviewing the author Umberto Eco? Get Solution →

Did you know?

• 💡 The first ever recorded interview was in 1859 with abolitionist John Brown.
• 💡 Humans spend roughly 80% of their waking hours communicating in some form.
• 💡 The average person spends about six months of their life waiting at traffic lights.
• 💡 Leonardo da Vinci famously took short naps throughout the day, a practice called polyphasic sleep.
• 💡 The word "interview" originally meant "a meeting, usually formal, for consultation."

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