Literature – GK Questions

Aravind Adiga's 'The White Tiger' offers a darkly humorous perspective on India's class struggle and rural poverty, winning the Booker Prize in 2008.

The Sahitya Akademi was formally inaugurated on March 12, 1954, with the aim of promoting Indian literature in various languages.

Awarded since 1903, the Prix Goncourt is given to the author of 'the best and most imaginative prose work of the year' written in French.

Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 for her visionary force and poetic import in novels like 'Beloved' and 'Song of Solomon'.

Named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of Amazing Stories, the Hugo Awards are voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Convention.

The Costa Book Awards are unique in that they recognize books across five categories (First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry, Children's Book) and then choose an overall Book of the Year.

Rudyard Kipling won the Nobel Prize at age 41, making him the youngest recipient of the Literature prize to date. He is famous for 'The Jungle Book'.

The Sahitya Akademi Fellowship (Immortals of Literature) is awarded to eminent writers for their outstanding contribution to Indian literature over a lifetime.

While it primarily recognizes the 22 scheduled languages, the Jnanpith Award is also open to works written in English and other recognized Indian languages like Rajasthani and Bhojpuri.

Since 2016, the prize is awarded to a specific translated work, with the £50,000 prize split equally between the author and the translator.

Hubris is often the 'hamartia' (tragic flaw) that leads to the protagonist's 'nemesis' (downfall) in classical tragedies.

The 14-line structure is the defining characteristic of the sonnet, whether it is Petrarchan (octave + sestet) or Shakespearean (three quatrains + a couplet).

The Theatre of the Absurd reflects the existential belief that human existence is fundamentally meaningless and communication is often futile.

This device is used to create suspense, irony, or psychological depth. Examples include the narrators in 'Fight Club' and 'The Catcher in the Rye'.

Also known as a 'coming-of-age' story, Charles Dickens' 'David Copperfield' and J.D. Salinger's 'The Catcher in the Rye' are classic examples.

'In media res' is a technique where the story opens in the middle of the action, rather than at the chronological beginning, often using flashbacks to fill in the backstory.

Coined by John Ruskin, the pathetic fallacy occurs when the environment reflects the mood of the characters, such as 'angry clouds' or 'weeping willows'.

Thomas Gray's 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' and Walt Whitman's 'O Captain! My Captain!' are famous examples.

Originating in ancient Greek theatre, where a god was lowered onto the stage via a crane (machine) to resolve the plot, it is now used to describe contrived endings.

Realism emerged in the mid-19th century, with authors like Gustave Flaubert and Leo Tolstoy aiming to portray life exactly as it was.