1. Unit at a glance
- Contains a two-part prose piece on the interview as a journalistic form: Part I discusses its history and varied opinions; Part II reproduces an interview with Umberto Eco.
- Common theme: the interview as both an intrusive act and a powerful medium of communication.
- Highlights contrasting celebrity views on interviews alongside Eco’s explanation of his writing habits and productivity.
- Emphasises the shift from formal academic style to narrative, personal writing.
- Shows how interviews reveal personality, methods, and philosophy of the interviewee.
- No poem is present in the unit.
2. Prose
Summary
The text first traces the interview’s 130-year history and records sharply divided opinions: some celebrities view it as an immoral intrusion that “steals” a part of the self, while others regard it as the chief modern source of information about contemporaries. It then presents an interview with Umberto Eco, who explains that he pursues the same ethical and philosophical interests through both academic work and fiction, works in “interstices” (empty moments), writes scholarly books in a narrative style, and considers himself primarily a university professor rather than a novelist.
Setting
Modern journalistic and academic contexts; references to 19th- and 20th-century writers and an interview conducted by The Hindu with Eco at the University of Bologna.
Main characters
- Christopher Silvester: compiler of views on the interview who presents both negative celebrity opinions and its positive communicative power.
- V.S. Naipaul, Lewis Carroll, Rudyard Kipling, H.G. Wells, Saul Bellow: celebrities cited for seeing interviews as wounding or immoral.
- Umberto Eco: scholar-novelist who describes his consistent philosophical interests, use of interstices, and self-image as an academic.
- Mukund Padmanabhan: interviewer who questions Eco about his output, style, and the success of The Name of the Rose.
Sequence of key events
- Invention of the interview and divided opinions are introduced.
- Negative views of Carroll, Kipling, Wells and others are quoted.
- Positive assessment by Denis Brian is given.
- Interview with Eco begins; he states he is “always doing the same thing.”
- Eco explains working in “interstices” and his narrative academic style.
- He reveals he began writing novels at fifty “by accident.”
- He identifies as a professor who writes novels on Sundays and discusses the unexpected success of The Name of the Rose.
3. Poem
No poem appears in this unit.
4. Themes and messages
The writer shows that the interview, despite being resented by some as an “assault,” remains “a supremely serviceable medium of communication.” Eco’s interview illustrates that one can maintain a single set of ethical interests across academic and creative work and that success (as with The Name of the Rose) cannot be predicted.
5. Literary devices
- Metaphor: “thumbprints on his windpipe” (Saul Bellow on interviews).
- Metaphor: “stealing that person’s soul” (primitive belief about photography applied to interviews).
- Simile: interviews “like thumbprints on his windpipe.”
- Imagery: “empty spaces in the universe… the universe will become as big as my fist.”
- Irony: Kipling condemns interviews yet had earlier interviewed Mark Twain.
6. Vocabulary
- semiotics: study of signs and symbols
- interstices: small empty spaces or gaps
- depersonalised: written without personal voice or feeling
- formidable: impressive and powerful
- verbatim: word-for-word
- narrative: telling events as a story
- ordeal: difficult or painful experience
7. Exam pitfalls
- Mixing up which writer said what (e.g., attributing “thumbprints on his windpipe” to Kipling instead of Bellow).
- Claiming Eco sees himself primarily as a novelist (he repeatedly calls himself a professor).
- Forgetting that the unit contains no poem.
- Overlooking the linkers and signallers discussed in the text when answering questions on conversation flow.