记不清什么时候知道诺贝尔奖项中包含了文学奖，反正是很早以前就知道了，肯定是在莫言被提名为诺贝尔文学奖得主的很多很多年以前，但是不久以前才发现，所谓的诺贝尔文学奖是中国人自己的发明，诺贝尔奖项中并没有文学奖这一项，莫言得到的也不是文学奖，而是文献奖（Nobel Prize in Literature）只不过这个文献不但包含了文学，而且很不幸地，迄今为止的诺贝尔文献奖主要是颁发给了文学作品的作家。
包括散文，长短诗，剧作，故事在内的各种形式的文学作品确实是人类文明中最能直接打动社会大众的心灵的写作形式，同时也是最容易被读者理解的一类作品，所以诺贝尔文献奖主要颁发给了文学作品的作家自有其合理性。但是在人类文明中，文学写作只反映了除了与物理，化学，医学，经济，及与和平有关的努力以及诺贝尔因个人感情而不喜欢的数学之外的极为广泛的文化领域的一个具有相当的局限性的一个子集，只是这个子集相对来说最容易理解而已。因此，反映了人类文明各重大领域的发展现状的诺贝尔奖的绝大多数得主都是文学作品的作家这一点本身反映了人类文明的一种不幸：作为自然界的最高进化的物种的人类在对于真理的认识上却与自然界的最原始的无机物的运动一样是受到最小阻力律制约的。这个最小阻力律在人类的认识活动中就表现为最容易理解律。
当然，就如同在自然过程中最小阻力律并非永远成立一样，对于有了智能的自主性的人类来说，最容易理解律也只是一个在大范围内以大概率成立的一个相对正确的统计现象而已。之所以说这个律的成立是一种不幸是因为最容易理解的内容不但不代表最深刻最有意义的，而且很多时候会因为它的肤浅而诱使人们忽视对于深刻内涵的理解因而为人类的社会实践带来困难和灾难。在诺贝尔文献奖的问题上所表现出来的人类对于最容易理解律的屈从的不幸有着两方面的意义：首先，这表明了社会大众具有欢迎容易理解的而排斥不容易理解的内容的倾向，尽管这些不容易理解的内容中有很多是非常重要的；第二，诺贝尔文献奖评审人员本身对不容易理解的内容也具有回避的倾向。
我在本文下面列出了自1901年以来历年的诺贝尔文献奖的获奖列单[1]。从这个列单中我们可以看到，不幸中的万幸是诺贝尔文献奖并没有象这个名词的中文译者可能期待的那样将它完全颁发给文学作品的作家，而是自1901年第一个诺贝尔文献奖以来的一百多次文献奖中有7次颁发给了非文学作品的作家。虽然这7次中的有些作者也曾写小说故事，但是他们在文学上的成就并非是他们得奖的主要原因，或者说他们在文献方面的主要成就不是表现在他们的小说作品上；其中也有的作者与文学基本无关。这7位非文学类的获奖作者中有一位是德国的历史文献作家（Theodor Mommsen），一位德国的哲学家（Rudolf Eucken），一位英国的政治家（英国首相丘吉尔），三位法国的哲学家（Henri Bergson，Albert Camus，Jean-Paul Sartre），和一位英国的哲学家（Bertrand Russell）。
这里要顺便提一下1938年的文献奖得主，美国女作家赛珍珠（Pearl Buck）。她出生在美国的西弗吉尼亚，3岁时到中国，43岁回到美国。她因她的一系列反映中国农民生活的文学作品而获得1938年的诺贝尔文献奖。今天的华人很多熟悉高行建和莫言的反映中国文化的作品，但是对赛珍珠的作品可能就不太熟悉了。
历年诺贝尔文献奖列表：
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1901 was awarded to Sully Prudhomme "in special recognition of his poetic composition, which gives evidence of lofty idealism, artistic perfection and a rare combination of the qualities of both heart and intellect".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1902 was awarded to Theodor Mommsen "the greatest living master of the art of historical writing, with special reference to his monumental work, A history of Rome".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1903 was awarded to Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished by both the freshness of its inspiration and the rare purity of its spirit".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1904 was divided equally between Frédéric Mistral "in recognition of the fresh originality and true inspiration of his poetic production, which faithfully reflects the natural scenery and native spirit of his people, and, in addition, his significant work as a Provençal philologist" and José Echegaray y Eizaguirre "in recognition of the numerous and brilliant compositions which, in an individual and original manner, have revived the great traditions of the Spanish drama".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1905 was awarded to Henryk Sienkiewicz "because of his outstanding merits as an epic writer".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1906 was awarded to Giosuè Carducci"not only in consideration of his deep learning and critical research, but above all as a tribute to the creative energy, freshness of style, and lyrical force which characterize his poetic masterpieces".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1907 was awarded to Rudyard Kipling"in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1908 was awarded to Rudolf Eucken"in recognition of his earnest search for truth, his penetrating power of thought, his wide range of vision, and the warmth and strength in presentation with which in his numerous works he has vindicated and developed an idealistic philosophy of life".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1909 was awarded to Selma Lagerlöf"in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1910 was awarded to Paul Heyse "as a tribute to the consummate artistry, permeated with idealism, which he has demonstrated during his long productive career as a lyric poet, dramatist, novelist and writer of world-renowned short stories".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1911 was awarded to Maurice Maeterlinck "in appreciation of his many-sided literary activities, and especially of his dramatic works, which are distinguished by a wealth of imagination and by a poetic fancy, which reveals, sometimes in the guise of a fairy tale, a deep inspiration, while in a mysterious way they appeal to the readers' own feelings and stimulate their imaginations".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1912 was awarded to Gerhart Hauptmann "primarily in recognition of his fruitful, varied and outstanding production in the realm of dramatic art".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1913 was awarded to Rabindranath Tagore "because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West".
No Nobel Prize was awarded 1914. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1915 was awarded to Romain Rolland"as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary production and to the sympathy and love of truth with which he has described different types of human beings".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1916 was awarded to Verner von Heidenstam "in recognition of his significance as the leading representative of a new era in our literature".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1917 was divided equally between Karl Adolph Gjellerup "for his varied and rich poetry, which is inspired by lofty ideals" and Henrik Pontoppidan "for his authentic descriptions of present-day life in Denmark".
No Nobel Prize was awarded 1918. The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1919 was awarded to Carl Spitteler "in special appreciation of his epic, Olympian Spring".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1920 was awarded to Knut Hamsun "for his monumental work, Growth of the Soil".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1921 was awarded to Anatole France" in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1922 was awarded to Jacinto Benavente "for the happy manner in which he has continued the illustrious traditions of the Spanish drama".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1923 was awarded to William Butler Yeats "for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1924 was awarded to Wladyslaw Reymont "for his great national epic, The Peasants".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1925 was awarded to George Bernard Shaw "for his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1926 was awarded to Grazia Deledda" for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1927 was awarded to Henri Bergson "in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1928 was awarded to Sigrid Undset "principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1929 was awarded to Thomas Mann "principally for his great novel, Buddenbrooks, which has won steadily increased recognition as one of the classic works of contemporary literature".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1930 was awarded to Sinclair Lewis"for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1931 was awarded to Erik Axel Karlfeldt "The poetry of Erik Axel Karlfeldt".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1932 was awarded to John Galsworthy "for his distinguished art of narration which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1933 was awarded to Ivan Bunin "for the strict artistry with which he has carried on the classical Russian traditions in prose writing".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1934 was awarded to Luigi Pirandello "for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art".
No Nobel Prize was awarded 1935. The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1936 was awarded to Eugene O'Neill "for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1937 was awarded to Roger Martin du Gard "for the artistic power and truth with which he has depicted human conflict as well as some fundamental aspects of contemporary life in his novel-cycle Les Thibault".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1938 was awarded to Pearl Buck "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1939 was awarded to Frans Eemil Sillanpää "for his deep understanding of his country's peasantry and the exquisite art with which he has portrayed their way of life and their relationship with Nature".
No Nobel Prize was awarded 1940. The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section.
No Nobel Prize was awarded 1941. The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section.
No Nobel Prize was awarded 1942. The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section.
No Nobel Prize was awarded 1943. The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section.
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1944 was awarded to Johannes V. Jensen "for the rare strength and fertility of his poetic imagination with which is combined an intellectual curiosity of wide scope and a bold, freshly creative style".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1945 was awarded to Gabriela Mistral "for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1946 was awarded to Hermann Hesse "for his inspired writings which, while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1947 was awarded to André Gide "for his comprehensive and artistically significant writings, in which human problems and conditions have been presented with a fearless love of truth and keen psychological insight".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1948 was awarded to T.S. Eliot "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1949 was awarded to William Faulkner"for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1950 was awarded to Bertrand Russell"in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1951 was awarded to Pär Lagerkvist "for the artistic vigour and true independence of mind with which he endeavours in his poetry to find answers to the eternal questions confronting mankind".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1952 was awarded to François Mauriac "for the deep spiritual insight and the artistic intensity with which he has in his novels penetrated the drama of human life".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1953 was awarded to Winston Churchill "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1954 was awarded to Ernest Hemingway "for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1955 was awarded to Halldór Laxness"for his vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1956 was awarded to Juan Ramón Jiménez "for his lyrical poetry, which in Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1957 was awarded to Albert Camus"for his important literary production, which withclear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1958 was awarded to Boris Pasternak "for his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1959 was awarded to Salvatore Quasimodo "for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1960 was awarded to Saint-John Perse"for the soaring flight and the evocative imagery of his poetry which in a visionary fashion reflects the conditions of our time".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1961 was awarded to Ivo Andric "for the epic force with which he has traced themes and depicted human destinies drawn from the history of his country".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1962 was awarded to John Steinbeck "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1963 was awarded to Giorgos Seferis"for his eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of culture".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1964 was awarded to Jean-Paul Sartre "for his work which, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1965 was awarded to Mikhail Sholokhov "for the artistic power and integrity with which, in his epic of the Don, he has given expression to a historic phase in the life of the Russian people".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1966 was divided equally between Shmuel Yosef Agnon "for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people" and Nelly Sachs "for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength" .
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1967 was awarded to Miguel Angel Asturias "for his vivid literary achievement, deep-rooted in the national traits and traditions of Indian peoples of Latin America".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1968 was awarded to Yasunari Kawabata "for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1969 was awarded to Samuel Beckett"for his writing, which - in new forms for the novel and drama - in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1970 was awarded to Alexandr Solzhenitsyn "for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1971 was awarded to Pablo Neruda"for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent's destiny and dreams".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1972 was awarded to Heinrich Böll "for his writing which through its combination of a broad perspective on his time and a sensitive skill in characterization has contributed to a renewal of German literature".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1973 was awarded to Patrick White"for an epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1974 was divided equally between Eyvind Johnson "for a narrative art, far-seeing in lands and ages, in the service of freedom" and Harry Martinson "for writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1975 was awarded to Eugenio Montale"for his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1976 was awarded to Saul Bellow "for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1977 was awarded to Vicente Aleixandre "for a creative poetic writing which illuminates man's condition in the cosmos and in present-day society, at the same time representing the great renewal of the traditions of Spanish poetry between the wars".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1978 was awarded to Isaac Bashevis Singer "for his impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1979 was awarded to Odysseus Elytis"for his poetry, which, against the background of Greek tradition, depicts with sensuous strength and intellectual clear-sightedness modern man's struggle for freedom and creativeness".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1980 was awarded to Czeslaw Milosz "who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1981 was awarded to Elias Canetti "for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1982 was awarded to Gabriel García Márquez "for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent's life and conflicts".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1983 was awarded to William Golding"for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1984 was awarded to Jaroslav Seifert"for his poetry which endowed with freshness, sensuality and rich inventiveness provides a liberating image of the indomitable spirit and versatility of man".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1985 was awarded to Claude Simon"who in his novel combines the poet's and the painter's creativeness with a deepened awareness of time in the depiction of the human condition".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1986 was awarded to Wole Soyinka"who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1987 was awarded to Joseph Brodsky"for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1988 was awarded to Naguib Mahfouz"who, through works rich in nuance - now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous - has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1989 was awarded to Camilo José Cela"for a rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a challenging vision of man's vulnerability".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1990 was awarded to Octavio Paz "for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1991 was awarded to Nadine Gordimer"who through her magnificent epic writing has - in the words of Alfred Nobel - been of very great benefit to humanity".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1992 was awarded to Derek Walcott"for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1993 was awarded to Toni Morrison"who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1994 was awarded to Kenzaburo Oe"who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1995 was awarded to Seamus Heaney"for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1996 was awarded to Wislawa Szymborska "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1997 was awarded to Dario Fo "who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1998 was awarded to José Saramago"who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1999 was awarded to Günter Grass"whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2000 was awarded to Gao Xingjian "for an æuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2001 was awarded to V. S. Naipaul "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2002 was awarded to Imre Kertész "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2003 was awarded to J. M. Coetzee"who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2004 was awarded to Elfriede Jelinek"for her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2005 was awarded to Harold Pinter"who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2006 was awarded to Orhan Pamuk"who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2007 was awarded to Doris Lessing"that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2008 was awarded to Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2009 was awarded to Herta Müller"who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2010 was awarded to Mario Vargas Llosa "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2011 was awarded to Tomas Tranströmer "because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2012 was awarded to Mo Yan "who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2013 was awarded to Alice Munro"master of the contemporary short story".
