NCERT Solutions for English Class 12 Prose (Flamingo) Chapter 7: The Interview
By Christopher Silvester & Umberto Eco
NCERT Solutions for Class 12 English Chapter 7 The Interview provide detailed explanations of the role and importance of interviews in modern communication. The chapter presents different viewpoints and encourages students to think critically about media interactions. These NCERT Class 12 English Solutions help learners understand key ideas, themes, and textbook questions in a simple manner. Students can improve comprehension and answer-writing skills while preparing for examinations. The chapter-wise explanations follow the latest academic requirements, making these NCERT Solutions for Class 12 English valuable for revision and exam success. Check out all subjects NCERT Solutions for class 12 and NCERT solutions for class 12 English prepared by MyClass24 Experts.
Find the PDF of NCERT Solutions for English Class 12 Prose (Flamingo) Chapter 7: The Interview
A Chapter in Two Parts
The Interview is an unusual chapter because it is structured in two complementary parts. The first part is an essay by Christopher Silvester on the history and ethics of the interview as a journalistic form. The second part is an excerpt from an actual interview of the Italian novelist and semiotician Umberto Eco, conducted by Mukund Padmanabhan of The Hindu.
Together, these two pieces create a rich, layered text that simultaneously theorises about interviewing as a practice and demonstrates that practice in action. Students of Class 12 benefit enormously from reading both parts together, as the second part illustrates many of the tensions and negotiations that Silvester describes in the first.
Silvester's Essay: The Birth and Ethics of the Interview
Silvester traces the journalistic interview back to the 1850s in America, when figures like Horace Greeley began publishing verbatim conversations with public figures. He charts how the form gained legitimacy over decades and eventually became the dominant mode of journalism. Yet from its very beginning, the interview was a contested form — many eminent individuals, including Rudyard Kipling and Lewis Carroll, despised being interviewed.
Silvester presents the interview as an inherently problematic form: it reduces complex human beings to a snapshot, it can be distorted by selective editing, and it gives power to the interviewer to shape another person's public image. At the same time, he acknowledges that the interview is now indispensable to public life, having become "one of the most potent methods of communication" in the modern world.
The Umberto Eco Interview: Craft and Personality
The interview with Eco is fascinating not just for what Eco says but for how he says it. He is asked about the paradox of being a serious academic who writes immensely popular fiction. His answer — that he writes in the "interstices" of his busy schedule, the gaps and empty spaces in his day — reveals a mind that is always active, always productive, never waiting for inspiration.
Eco's most striking observation is about what he calls the "non-fictional narrative" quality of his academic work. He insists that even his dense scholarly texts are structured like narratives and require the same precision of language as fiction. This collapses the boundary between academic and creative writing that most people take for granted.
Key Concept: Umberto Eco on Interstices
When asked how he manages to write so prolifically alongside his academic work, Eco explains that he uses interstices — small gaps of time that most people waste — to write. This reflects a disciplined creative philosophy that treats even idle moments as opportunities.
What the Chapter Teaches About Communication
Beyond its content, The Interview teaches students to read critically — to understand that interviews are constructed texts with power dynamics. The interviewer chooses what to ask, how to frame questions, and what to retain in the final published version. The interviewee, however articulate, is always partially at the mercy of the form. This critical media literacy is one of the most valuable takeaways from this chapter for today's students.
FAQs for NCERT Solutions for Class 12 English Flamingo Chapter 7 – The Interview Solutions
The Interview discusses the role, importance, and impact of interviews in modern communication and journalism. It presents different viewpoints about interviews, showing both their usefulness in gathering information and their potential to make people uncomfortable. Through opinions of well-known writers and journalists, the chapter highlights how interviews shape public perception and reveal deeper truths about personalities. It also reflects on the ethical responsibility of interviewers to maintain respect and balance while questioning. This theme helps students understand how interviews function as a powerful medium of communication and why they are an important part of media studies and literature.
Christopher Silvester provides a balanced and thoughtful perspective on interviews, helping readers understand their complexity. He does not present interviews as entirely positive or negative but instead highlights both advantages and criticisms. His writing shows how interviews can reveal hidden aspects of a person’s life while sometimes invading privacy. By including opinions from different personalities, he makes the discussion more realistic and informative. Students benefit from his perspective as it helps them analyze questions related to media ethics, communication, and interpretation of interviews in a structured and exam-oriented way.
NCERT Solutions for The Interview help students understand every question in a simple and exam-focused manner. They explain key ideas such as the purpose of interviews, different viewpoints, and the role of interviewers in journalism. These solutions also guide students in framing clear, structured answers that follow CBSE marking schemes. Regular practice improves comprehension skills and helps students handle extract-based and analytical questions confidently. By revising through NCERT solutions, students gain a deeper understanding of communication techniques and can write accurate answers in their Class 12 English board examination.