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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 3, Intro. cont. & Chapter 1 - Rabelais in the History of Laughter.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. During Bakhtin's time, what genre was being closely defined by the Soviet government?
(a) The epic poem.
(b) The novel.
(c) The lyric.
(d) The biography.

3. Bakhtin believes that novels are:
(a) Random, like stream-of-consciousness.
(b) Inherently confessional.
(c) Utterly separate from the author's own life.
(d) Socially charged and polemical.

4. Medieval parodies were:
(a) Limited to religious parody.
(b) Focused on the negative aspects of society.
(c) Concerned with the positive, humorous aspects of everything.
(d) Limited to parody of individuals.

5. According to Bakhtin's semiotic understanding, what irony is inherent within the creative power of language?
(a) Language does not actually express anything.
(b) All languages are one.
(c) The individual expresses him- or herself only through the words of others.
(d) No word can actually ever be defined.

Short Answer Questions

1. What in particular forms the basic elements of Rabelais' novel _Gargantua_?

2. Mikhail Bakhtin is:

3. When did the Russian Revolution occur?

4. How, according to Bakhtin, does the current Russian literary criticism approach Rabelais' works?

5. According to Bakhtin, what is the function of art?

(see the answer key)

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