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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. "Fat William," of comic folklore, symbolized:
(a) Bread and wine in bodily form.
(b) The health risks of obesity.
(c) The entire body of the people.
(d) Catholicism's huge influence in Europe.

2. Bakhtin asserts that in Rabelais' time, food and banquets always contained a sense of:
(a) Victory and regeneration.
(b) Physical discomfort.
(c) Depression and resignation.
(d) Intellectual stimulation.

3. What are the languages involved in what Bakhtin terms the "triple linguistic process" of Rabelais' time?
(a) Medieval Latin, Old French, and Middle French.
(b) Medieval Latin, Middle French, and Middle German.
(c) Classic Latin, Medieval Latin, and vernacular French.
(d) Classic Latin, Middle French, and vernacular French.

4. Bakhtin defines the early French work "The Play in the Bower" as a:
(a) Comic drama.
(b) Melodrama.
(c) Tragedy.
(d) Farce.

5. The defense of the abbey by Friar John contains:
(a) A travestied allusion to Communion.
(b) A caricature of the Pope.
(c) A grotesque combination of sexual intercourse and war.
(d) A debasing description of the French people.

Short Answer Questions

1. Bakhtin asserts that Rabelais' language, and the language of Renaissance France, was above all:

2. What is the image of woman in the Renaissance popular comic tradition?

3. Bakhtin asserts that man introduces the world to himself primarily through which act?

4. What word characterizes Medieval thinking, according to Bakhtin?

5. Bakhtin discusses "Cyprian's Supper," which is a play about:

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the significance of the figure of the androgyne in Rabelais' novel?

2. What is the significance of the two Russian eras of history to which Bakhtin refers in Chapter Three?

3. How do the Medieval and Renaissance pictures of the cosmos differ?

4. What is the role of games in Rabelais' work?

5. How did games and gaming change after the Renaissance?

6. Why does Bakhtin choose to relate Goethe to Rabelais' work?

7. Why are eating and drinking two of the most important manifestations of the grotesque body?

8. What did the Medieval stage resemble?

9. What is the nature of the carnivalesque crowd in Rabelais' novel?

10. How does Rabelais use the element of popular speech known as "coq-à-l'âne"?

(see the answer keys)

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