The shaping of Gorbachev: On framing in an interpreter-mediated talk-show interview

Abstract

AbstractThis paper examines a televised interview that BBC journalist and show host Clive Anderson conducted with the former head of state of the dissolved USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, assisted by the interpreter Pavel Palazchenko. The paper explores this interview, focusing on its opening and closing, its local organization, and the involvement of the audience. Applying conversation analysis, the paper traces the generic belonging of current talk and looks into a variety of features that shaped the image of Gorbachev as a television personality in British TV. It demonstrates how Gorbachev and Anderson moved between and played with a ‘talk show interview’ and a ‘news interview’ framing of interaction. The analysis demonstrates how the encounter helped portray Gorbachev as a witty and adequate performer, irrespective of the fact that he did not speak English—the language of the broadcast and of the viewers. This was due to what he said, but no less to how he performed, and not least to his way of utilizing the assistance of the highly skilled interpreter, and also, I will argue, to the fact that the interview allowed him to take part in a shared game of entertainment, in a genuinely hybrid form of talk.