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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. To what are "swabs" most closely related?

2. What significant thing did translators of Rabelais' work add to their translations?

3. In Rabelais' novel, the "ancestral body" to which Bakhtin refers means:

4. According to Bakhtin, how did Rabelais invent many of the locales and characters in his novel?

5. In Rabelais' novel, the words "to die" are closely associated with:

Short Essay Questions

1. Discuss the significance of Gargantua's birth.

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

3. How does Rabelais respond to the geographical changes of his own time and world?

4. How is "folly" ambivalent?

5. Describe the figure of "Gros Guillaume" and his significance to Rabelais' novel.

6. Briefly describe the two opposing lines of thought in the "querelle des femmes."

7. Why does the logic of the grotesque ignore the closed surfaces of the body?

8. What did the Medieval stage resemble?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the "querelle des femmes" and Rabelais' perspective on it. How does Rabelais' novel portray women and femininity? Is Bakhtin's explanation of Rabelais' perspective on the querelle des femmes problematic in any way? Feel free to address this issue using terms of modern feminist theory.

Essay Topic 2

What is significant about the marketplace in the Renaissance? What is its relation to folk culture? How are social relationships conducted in the environment of the marketplace? How are the "street cries" significant aspects of folk culture? What other "unofficial" elements of communication, social commentary, and social interaction are especially prevalent in the marketplace? Are there any carnivalesque elements of the marketplace?

Essay Topic 3

Examine the structure, the presence, and the purpose of the Foreword and the Prologue. What do they offer to the reader? What is the purpose of a foreword or a prologue--what is the function of writing an introduction to someone else's book? Can, or do, such prefatory remarks influence the reader's experience of the text? Can reading ever be a "pure" activity with no outside influence of opinion?

(see the answer keys)

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