Class 12 English - TELANGANA
Prose: The Interview
The chapter 'The Interview' by Christopher Silvester is an excerpt from his Penguin Book of Interviews. It explores the myriad views on the utility and practice of interviews through various extracts from journalism and literature. Students learn about the evolution of the interview as a medium of communication, its impact on celebrities, and the stark contrast between those who despise it, like Rudyard Kipling and Lewis Carroll, and those who readily master it, like Mukund Padmanabhan, Umberto Eco, and Saul Bellow. For the Telangana TSBSE board exams, this chapter tests reading comprehension, critical thinking, and textual analysis skills through short and long-answer questions.
Start Learning FreeKey Concepts
Nature of the Interview
Interviews have become a commonplace of journalism, with every literate person having read an interview at some point in their lives, though opinions on its worth vary wildly.
Detractors of the Interview
Literary figures like Rudyard Kipling, Lewis Carroll, and H.G. Wells viewed interviews as an immoral intrusion, a form of assault that leaves a lasting impression and diminishes their privacy.
Proponents and Uses
Despite criticisms, interviews are viewed by many as a supremely serviceable medium of communication and a true source of truth, providing vivid portraits of celebrities.
Umberto Eco's Academic Productivity
The interview with Umberto Eco highlights his ability to write scholarly non-fiction alongside novels, utilizing his 'interstices' (empty spaces) to achieve remarkable productivity.
The Concept of 'Interstices'
Eco explains that empty spaces in life, such as waiting for an elevator or a friend, can be utilized to do intellectual work, which explains how he writes so many books.
Important Formulas
Board Exam Info
In the Telangana (TSBSE) Class 12 English board exams, this prose chapter typically carries around 4 to 8 marks. Questions generally appear as annotations (reference to context), short answer questions testing comprehension of Eco's writing style or views of authors, and occasional long-answer essay questions focusing on the pros and cons of interviews.
Frequently Asked Questions
Kipling considered interviews to be cowardly, immoral, an offense, and a crime that merited punishment, believing they brought a person's privacy under unwarranted attack.
Eco utilizes the 'interstices'—the empty spaces or spare moments in everyday life—to do his creative and academic writing instead of wasting time.
The chapter explores the dual nature of interviews: while some celebrities view them as an invasion of privacy and a distortion of truth, others see them as a powerful tool for communication and self-expression.
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