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

2. With what is "folk culture" most concerned?
(a) The affairs of royalty.
(b) Commerce and industry.
(c) The lives of ordinary people.
(d) Foreign songs, art, and stories.

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

4. What repressive organization was Bakhtin forced to join in order to continue writing?
(a) The Soviet Society of National Fiction.
(b) The National Writers' Agency.
(c) The Russian Union of Writers.
(d) The Post-Revolution Press

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 write mostly novels.
(d) They both directly challenge the government by running for political office.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do some critics argue has been absent from Russian literature?

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

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

4. What was unique about the Russian Revolution?

5. What does Bakhtin consider the most indispensable element of folk culture?

(see the answer key)

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