Copyright
© 2000
Team C001515

1930

Overview:

The famous interviewer and writer Oriana Fallaci can almost be considered as famous and feared as many of the people she interviews. With a writing and interviewing style like no others’ she is considered to be one of the most fascinating journalist of modern time

Oriana Fallaci At the same time, her writing and journalism have both shocked and inspired the world.

Country: Italy

Type of hero: Economic and Social Rights

Attributes: Writer, Journalist (and a good one at that!)

Biography:

Oriana Fallaci was born in Florence in 1930, during the rise of Mussolini to power. It has been argued by some that the political and social turmoil that existed in Italy at this time fuelled her writing both as a novelist and a journalist.

Oriana grew up during the second world war and by the age of 10 in 1940, was engaged in the war with her father in the underground resistance movement. Her father was captured by the Nazi’s towards the end of the war – and despite torture and imprisonment, was finally released.

She began her journalistic career in her teens having discovered the power of words. While she claimed at one stage that she began journalism as a way of getting into writing, her journalistic style has been most controversial. She has an abrasive style that leaves her subjects with little room to manoeuvre at times.

It is these factors which have so heavily influenced Fallaci's writing and which, along with her unique interviewing and writing style, have established her as what many refer to as the greatest political interviewer of modern times. Her focus on power has meant that she has interviewed some of the most powerful political figures in the world. She has brought her own style to what can be a sterile environment. Her interpretations and the use of passion and feeling in her interviews set new standards.

Citations & References:

Links:
http://www.giselle.com/oriana.html
http://www.provincia.asti.it/resistenza/pace19.htm
http://gbms01.uwgb.edu/~galta/333/jillpapr.htm
http://www.bemorecreative.com/one/1127.htm

Go back to Great Heroes of the Twentieth Century