View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Bakhtin assert is evident in Rabelais' plan for Pantagruel's journey?
(a) Rabelais' own morbid fascination with death.
(b) Rabelais' critique of contemporary politics.
(c) Rabelais' fanciful, imaginative creation of impossible places.
(d) Rabelais' response to his world's changing geography.

2. According to Bakhtin, the "birth" of the word by the clown is an example of:
(a) The switching of the lower bodily functions with the higher ones.
(b) The privileging of intellect over the baser functions of the body.
(c) The inherent comedic potential of words and speech.
(d) The difficulty of spreading information in an illiterate culture.

3. What actual event probably inspired Rabelais' story of Pantagruel's birth?
(a) An unusual heat wave and drought.
(b) An earthquake which devastated southern France.
(c) The French victory of a battle with the Spanish.
(d) A famine resulting from an unusually cold winter.

4. How does Bakhtin interpret Rabelais' work as a response to the hardships of France in 1532?
(a) The novel chastises the people for bringing suffering on themselves.
(b) The novel reinforces the misery the people suffered.
(c) The novel provides a merry alternative to suffering.
(d) The novel offers spiritual guidance through hard times.

5. What does Panurge fear if he gets married?
(a) That he will marry an ugly woman.
(b) That he will eventually be cuckolded.
(c) That his wife will never love him.
(d) That he will not be able to have a son.

6. Bakhtin asserts that in the episode of Gargantua's birth, the dividing lines between _______ are erased.
(a) Human and animal consciousness.
(b) Earthly and divine spiritual relationships.
(c) Children and adults.
(d) Human and animal organs.

7. One of Rabelais' main sources for his enumerations of food was a Medieval treatise about:
(a) The proper order in which to eat banquet foods.
(b) The ways in which chicken tasted better than pheasant.
(c) Restrictions of food for pregnant women.
(d) Lenten and non-Lenten foods.

8. Why does Bakhtin cite Goethe as a source about the nature of Carnival?
(a) Goethe's negative views about the common people provide a counterpoint to Bakhtin's views.
(b) Goethe was passionately interested in the festivity.
(c) Goethe and Rabelais were contemporaries and corresponded with each other regularly.
(d) Goethe was the official organizer of Carnival in Frankfurt.

9. How does Gargantua's letter to Pantagruel challenge and attempt to change Catholic dogma?
(a) It asserts that there is no heaven, only hell.
(b) It argues that all forms of faith are equally valid.
(c) It re-envisions the doctrine of the trinity by adding humans to it.
(d) It assumes that the body, in addition to the soul, is also immortal.

10. How does Bakhtin define "carnivalesque hell"?
(a) Depraved because it encourages wanton sexual gratification.
(b) Ambivalent because it includes both fear and laughter.
(c) Negative because everyone, including demons, are always suffering.
(d) Leisurely because everyone seems to be on holiday.

11. What does Rabelais associate closely with the underworld?
(a) The depths of the human heart.
(b) Bodily depression after too much feasting.
(c) Mountains and ridges.
(d) Various types of holes.

12. Bakhtin asserts that the spirit of Carnival is essentially:
(a) One of dullness and duty.
(b) One of innocence and confusion.
(c) One of immortality and regeneration.
(d) One of pessimism and regression.

13. Which aspect of Renaissance culture does Bakhtin stress is still apparent in Western society today?
(a) Public thrashings.
(b) Street cries.
(c) Carnival.
(d) Clowns and fools.

14. In Rabelais' novel, the words "to die" are closely associated with:
(a) Passing out after drinking too much wine.
(b) Sexual fulfillment.
(c) Losing a debate with a scholar.
(d) Being eaten or swallowed up.

15. What do wine and oil symbolize in Rabelais' novel?
(a) Sickness and hangovers versus a useful cooking ingredient.
(b) Free, festive speech versus religious piety and seriousness.
(c) Hard harvest work in the vineyards and olive groves.
(d) Since both are flammable, they symbolize hellfire.

Short Answer Questions

1. Bakhtin defines the early French work "The Play in the Bower" as a:

2. At the beginning of Chapter 6, Bakhtin argues that Rabelais' entire novel exhibits a clear, general __________ thematic trend.

3. How does Bakhtin interpret Rabelais' term "agelast"?

4. Which grotesque elements does Bakhtin note were included in the procession of the feast of Corpus Christi?

5. Bakhtin generally finds Goethe's sense of Carnival's _____________ to agree with his own views.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 741 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample