Class 12 English — Chapter 7: The Interview

Chapter 7: The Interview is a chapter in Class 12 English (Flamingo), part of the CBSE NCERT curriculum followed by over 25 million students across India. This chapter covers 9 topics including The Function and Perception of Interviews, Celebrity Aversion to Interviews, The Interviewer's Power and Influence. BrainWeave provides free AI-powered explanations — by voice or text, in Hindi or English — with no signup required.

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What you'll learn

▸The Function and Perception of InterviewsCore concept

journalismcommonplacesource of truthart form
▸Celebrity Aversion to InterviewsCore concept

V.S. NaipaulLewis CarrollRudyard Kiplingintrusionhorror
▸The Interviewer's Power and Influence

Denis Brianpowerinfluencevivid impressions
▸Contradictory Stances on Interviewing

Rudyard KiplingH.G. WellsMark TwainJoseph Stalincontradiction
▸Umberto Eco's Multifaceted Career

Umberto Ecosemioticsacademicnovelistphilosophical interests
▸The Concept of 'Interstices'Core concept

intersticesempty spacesproductivitytime management
▸Eco's Narrative Academic StyleCore concept

academic stylenarrativeresearch storydissertationRoland Barthes
▸Eco's Identity as a ScholarCore concept

university professoracademic communitynovelistidentityPen Clubs
▸The Success of 'The Name of the Rose'Core concept

The Name of the Rosemass audiencemysterypublishersmedieval history

Chapter Summary

Understand the interview as a journalistic tool, its modern prevalence, and the dual perception of it as both a 'source of truth' and an art form.

Analyze the reasons why many famous individuals, such as V.S. Naipaul, Lewis Carroll, and Rudyard Kipling, have a strong dislike for interviews, viewing them as an intrusive and diminishing experience.

Recognize the significant power and influence wielded by interviewers in shaping public perception, as they are the primary source of our 'vivid impressions of our contemporaries'.

Identify the ironic or contradictory behavior of public figures like Rudyard Kipling and H.G. Wells, who criticized the practice of interviewing despite having engaged in it themselves.

Appreciate the wide-ranging intellectual work of Umberto Eco, spanning semiotics, medieval aesthetics, literary fiction, and academic texts, all unified by a core set of philosophical interests.

Explain Umberto Eco's personal productivity method of using 'interstices' — small, empty gaps of time — to accomplish a staggering amount of writing.

Understand Umberto Eco's unique approach to academic writing, which he describes as telling the 'story of the research', making it personal and narrative-driven, unlike the typically dry, depersonalized style.

Analyze why Umberto Eco identifies primarily as a 'university professor who writes novels on Sundays', prioritizing his academic identity over his fame as a novelist.

Explore the reasons for the massive success of Eco's serious novel, and his belief that its success was a 'mystery' that defied publishers' expectations that audiences prefer 'trash'.

Practice Questions from this Chapter

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

Frequently Asked Questions

How many topics are covered in this chapter?

This chapter covers 9 key topics: 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, and more. The BrainWeave AI tutor explains each one with examples.

Is Chapter 7: The Interview important for board exams?

Yes — Class 12 is a CBSE board exam year, and every NCERT chapter is part of the syllabus. Use BrainWeave's AI tutor to master this chapter, then practice with the auto-generated quizzes and mind maps.

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