Literature – Medium Level – GK Questions

Bhisham Sahni wrote 'Tamas' in 1974. It won the Sahitya Akademi Award and was adapted into a TV series by Govind Nihalani.

'Interpreter of Maladies' explores the lives of Indians and Indian expatriates navigating cultural displacement.

R.K. Narayan won the Sahitya Akademi Award for 'The Guide', which was later adapted into a successful film.

Ashapoorna Devi was the first woman to win the Jnanpith Award (1976). Mahadevi Varma won it later in 1982.

Donna Tartt's 'The Goldfinch' follows a boy who survives a terrorist attack at an art museum and takes a famous painting.

Satire is a literary technique used to provoke change or highlight societal flaws. Jonathan Swift's 'A Modest Proposal' is a classic example.

An allegory uses symbolic figures and actions to convey deeper truths. Examples include George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' and John Bunyan's 'The Pilgrim's Progress'.

Sancho Panza is the pragmatic and humorous squire to the delusional knight-errant Don Quixote in Miguel de Cervantes' novel.

Written in the 14th century, 'The Canterbury Tales' features a storytelling contest among a group of pilgrims traveling to Canterbury Cathedral.

Dante's 'Divine Comedy' is divided into three parts: Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise).

Kambar composed the 'Kamba Ramayanam' (Ramavataram) in the 12th century. It is a masterpiece of Tamil literature.

Banabhatta, the court poet of Emperor Harsha, wrote 'Harshacharita' in the 7th century. It is a biographical account of Harsha's early life and rise to power.

Mirza Ghalib, one of the most prominent figures of Urdu poetry, compiled his ghazals in 'Diwan-e-Ghalib'.

Agyeya published 'Shekhar: Ek Jivani' in 1941. It is considered the first Hindi novel to delve deeply into the psychoanalytic aspects of its protagonist.

Anita Desai published 'Clear Light of Day' in 1980. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and is celebrated for its psychological depth.

While it primarily recognizes the 22 scheduled languages, the Sahitya Akademi also gives awards for English and Rajasthani, Bhojpuri, and other recognized languages not in the 8th Schedule.

Nigerian playwright and poet Wole Soyinka was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986.

Isabel Allende published her debut novel 'The House of the Spirits' in 1982. It blends historical events with magical elements, similar to the style of her distant relative's contemporary, García Márquez.

Chinua Achebe published 'Things Fall Apart' in 1958. It is widely considered the archetypal modern African novel in English.

Written in 1972, 'Ghashiram Kotwal' deals with political violence and hypocrisy. It caused significant controversy due to its depiction of the Brahmin elite of Pune.