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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 15, Chapter 6 - Images of the Material Bodily Lower Stratum.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Bakhtin find to be the greatest error other critics make in their studies of Rabelais' works?
(a) They neglect to explore the element of the Renaissance folk culture.
(b) They classify Rabelais as just as important as Shakespeare and Cervantes.
(c) They treat Rabelais as a prophet of literary upheavals.
(d) They read Rabelais' works as allegory only.

2. Goethe traces the roots of Carnival to the:
(a) Romans.
(b) Phoenicians.
(c) Greeks.
(d) Mesopotamians.

3. What does Bakhtin argue is the role of dialogue?
(a) To oppose the authoritarian word.
(b) To move the plot along.
(c) To demonstrate thinking out loud.
(d) To give one character a strong voice.

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

5. How are Bakhtin and Rabelais similar?
(a) They live in the same country.
(b) They both subvert the social prohibition on laughter, satire, and irony.
(c) They both directly challenge the government by running for political office.
(d) They both write mostly novels.

Short Answer Questions

1. The prologue of _Pantagruel_ is a parody and travesty of:

2. Why, according to Bakhtin, does Rabelais treat excrement ambivalently?

3. In the folklore and grotesque realism of Rabelais' works, excrement represents bodies and matter that are:

4. Why did Bakhtin feel his times were comparable to those of the Renaissance?

5. How is the Rabelaisian use of tripe an excellent example of grotesque realism?

(see the answer key)

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