A Nigerian writer yesterday was named the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first African to win the award in its 85-year history, and an American economist won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science.

Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian-born author of novels and plays, was cited by the Swedish Academy of Letters as a writer "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence."

James McGill Buchanan, a professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., was selected to receive the prize in economic science for his work studying the relationship between economics and politics.

The Nobel Committee announced its decisions in Stockholm.

Soyinka's works include the novels The Interpreters and The Man Died and plays "The Invention" and "The Lion in the Jewel."

The 52-year-old Nigerian author has long lived in exile in London and writes primarily in English. Soyinka was arrested in Nigeria in 1967 and held for 22 months on the charge of conspiring with anti-government rebels fighting for the independent state of Biafara.

"He has been bringing the African experience in literature to the rest of the world," said Nellie Y. McKay '71, a visiting professor at the Divinity School.

Professor of Romance and Comparative Literature Susan M. Suleiman '64 said that Soyinka's plays, while rooted in Africa, speak to a non-African audience as well. His plays "are both specifically African and at the same time in their feelings and predicament I can recognize something that interests and concerns me," said Suleiman.

Buchanan, 67, is in the forefront of a field of economics known as new political economy, or "public choice."

The academy said that through his study of this new area of economics, Buchanan "has transferred the concept of gain derived from mutual exchange between individuals to the realm of political decision-making."

Robert Dorfman '55, Wells Professor of Political Economy, described Buchanan as "ingenius and fair-minded."

"He's been very influential," said Dorfman. "He's given thought to what sorts of goods should be provided by the government and ways of deciding how much should be spent on them."

"It's quite an original line of development. He basically pioneered the area of public choice theory," said Professor of Economics John F. Kain '68. "His work has dealt with a range of important issues."

Other professors challenged the novelty of Buchanan's research, however.

Jerry R. Green, chairman of the Department of Economics said, "he has had good ideas, but it's not as if he's a creator of a new innovation."

"It's not a particularly new trend," said Hollis B. Chenery '50, Cabot Professor of Economics, adding, "It is significant that he's not in the mainstream. His topics and approach are not the traditional ones."

"The Nobel Committee may be interested in pointing out the broader areas rather than the neo-classical areas," said Chenery.

The Nobel prizes were first awarded in 1901 as a legacy of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. The prize in economics was established in 1968 as a memorial to Nobel.

The prizes will be awarded in Oslo, Norway, and in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1886.