25 MCQs on Nobel Prize in Literature
1. Who was the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature?
a) Mulk Raj Anand
b) R.K. Narayan
c) Rabindranath Tagore
d) Vikram Seth
Answer: c) Rabindranath Tagore
Explanation: Tagore won in 1913 for Gitanjali, becoming the first non-European laureate.
2. Which Irish writer won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925?
a) W.B. Yeats
b) George Bernard Shaw
c) James Joyce
d) Samuel Beckett
Answer: b) George Bernard Shaw
Explanation: Shaw was awarded for his work rich in satire and human compassion.
3. Which American writer won the Nobel in 1954 and is known for The Old Man and the Sea?
a) William Faulkner
b) Ernest Hemingway
c) John Steinbeck
d) T.S. Eliot
Answer: b) Ernest Hemingway
Explanation: He was awarded for his mastery of the art of narrative.
4. Who was the first African to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature?
a) Chinua Achebe
b) Wole Soyinka
c) Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
d) Nadine Gordimer
Answer: b) Wole Soyinka
Explanation: Soyinka won in 1986 for his work rooted in Yoruba culture and political criticism.
5. Which of these poets won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995?
a) Derek Walcott
b) Seamus Heaney
c) Pablo Neruda
d) Joseph Brodsky
Answer: b) Seamus Heaney
Explanation: He was awarded for lyrical beauty and ethical depth in his poetry.
6. Bob Dylan received the Nobel Prize in 2016 for his contributions to:
a) Political journalism
b) Poetry and protest songs
c) American songwriting tradition
d) Modern drama
Answer: c) American songwriting tradition
Explanation: Dylan was recognized for creating poetic expressions within music.
7. Which French writer refused the Nobel Prize in 1964?
a) André Gide
b) Jean-Paul Sartre
c) Albert Camus
d) Romain Rolland
Answer: b) Jean-Paul Sartre
Explanation: Sartre declined the prize, consistent with his rejection of official honors.
8. Who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021?
a) Kazuo Ishiguro
b) Olga Tokarczuk
c) Abdulrazak Gurnah
d) Annie Ernaux
Answer: c) Abdulrazak Gurnah
Explanation: He was honored for his work on colonialism and refugee experiences.
9. Which Russian novelist won the Nobel Prize in 1970 but was denied permission to collect it?
a) Boris Pasternak
b) Alexander Solzhenitsyn
c) Leo Tolstoy
d) Ivan Bunin
Answer: b) Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Explanation: He was barred by Soviet authorities due to his critical stance.
10. Toni Morrison won the Nobel in 1993 for:
a) Feminist philosophy
b) Contribution to drama
c) Poetic narratives and Black experience
d) Short story writing
Answer: c) Poetic narratives and Black experience
Explanation: Her novels portray African-American lives with intensity and depth.
11. Who was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature?
a) Selma Lagerlöf
b) Pearl S. Buck
c) Nadine Gordimer
d) Doris Lessing
Answer: a) Selma Lagerlöf
Explanation: She won in 1909, known for her storytelling and spiritual insight.
12. Which author of One Hundred Years of Solitude won in 1982?
a) Isabel Allende
b) Mario Vargas Llosa
c) Gabriel García Márquez
d) Jorge Luis Borges
Answer: c) Gabriel García Márquez
Explanation: He was awarded for magical realism and storytelling power.
13. Who won the Nobel Prize in 2007 and was known for The Road?
a) Don DeLillo
b) Cormac McCarthy
c) Doris Lessing
d) J.M. Coetzee
Answer: c) Doris Lessing
Explanation: She won for her epic and skeptical writing on the human condition.
14. Which Polish author won the Nobel Prize in 2018?
a) Olga Tokarczuk
b) Wisława Szymborska
c) Adam Zagajewski
d) Czesław Miłosz
Answer: a) Olga Tokarczuk
Explanation: She received it for her narrative imagination and psychological insight.
15. Which laureate is known for his anti-colonial trilogy and won the Nobel in 2001?
a) V.S. Naipaul
b) Derek Walcott
c) Chinua Achebe
d) Ben Okri
Answer: a) V.S. Naipaul
Explanation: Naipaul was recognized for unflinching narrative on postcolonial societies.
16. Who received the Nobel in 2022 for autobiographical memory and French social history?
a) Michel Houellebecq
b) Annie Ernaux
c) Patrick Modiano
d) Jean Echenoz
Answer: b) Annie Ernaux
Explanation: She was honored for her courage and clinical precision in writing.
17. Which German author won the Nobel Prize in 1999?
a) Günter Grass
b) Hermann Hesse
c) Heinrich Böll
d) Thomas Mann
Answer: a) Günter Grass
Explanation: He is best known for The Tin Drum, reflecting post-war Germany.
18. T.S. Eliot, born in the US, won the Nobel Prize while a citizen of:
a) America
b) France
c) Britain
d) Ireland
Answer: c) Britain
Explanation: Eliot became a British citizen in 1927 and won the prize in 1948.
19. Which country has produced the highest number of Nobel laureates in literature?
a) United States
b) France
c) Germany
d) UK
Answer: b) France
Explanation: France has the highest number of Nobel laureates in literature.
20. Which writer known for Disgrace won the Nobel in 2003?
a) Nadine Gordimer
b) J.M. Coetzee
c) Wole Soyinka
d) Ben Okri
Answer: b) J.M. Coetzee
Explanation: Coetzee is known for sparse, philosophical writing on ethical dilemmas.
21. Who is the only laureate to win both Nobel and Booker Prize twice?
a) Kazuo Ishiguro
b) J.M. Coetzee
c) Margaret Atwood
d) Salman Rushdie
Answer: b) J.M. Coetzee
Explanation: Coetzee won the Booker twice and the Nobel once.
22. Which Chilean poet won the Nobel Prize in 1971?
a) Pablo Neruda
b) Gabriela Mistral
c) Roberto Bolaño
d) Nicanor Parra
Answer: a) Pablo Neruda
Explanation: Neruda was recognized for his passionate, political poetry.
23. Which Nobel laureate is known for the novel The Remains of the Day?
a) Salman Rushdie
b) Arundhati Roy
c) Kazuo Ishiguro
d) Han Kang
Answer: c) Kazuo Ishiguro
Explanation: Ishiguro won the Nobel in 2017 for his emotionally restrained fiction.
24. Who is the only Indian-origin writer to win the Nobel in Literature (until 2024)?
a) Anita Desai
b) Vikram Seth
c) Arundhati Roy
d) Rabindranath Tagore
Answer: d) Rabindranath Tagore
Explanation: Though many Indian authors have been nominated, only Tagore has won.
25. Nobel Prizes are awarded by:
a) UNESCO
b) United Nations
c) Swedish Academy
d) British Council
Answer: c) Swedish Academy
Explanation: The Swedish Academy selects the laureates in Literature.
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