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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. Comic rituals in Medieval and Renaissance Europe were:
(a) Necessary to mercantile transactions.
(b) All that which linked the living to the dead.
(c) Freed of the trappings of religious dogma and mysticism.
(d) Taboo in all settings but the royal court.

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

3. What does Bakhtin consider the most indispensable element of folk culture?
(a) Carnival.
(b) Fables.
(c) Death rituals.
(d) Marriage.

4. What do some critics argue has been absent from Russian literature?
(a) Sexually-charged dialogue.
(b) A particularly Western type of humor.
(c) Political dissent.
(d) Religious fervor.

5. Mikhail Bakhtin is:
(a) A vocal Eastern Orthodox cleric.
(b) A fictional figure created to be the mouthpiece of an anonymous author.
(c) A somewhat mysterious but increasingly interesting literary figure.
(d) The most famous Russian writer ever.

Short Answer Questions

1. After Rabelais' time, the use of laughter in literature and culture moved in which direction?

2. In the seventeenth century, the decline of laughter as a primary force in folk culture resulted from:

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

4. Medieval parodies were:

5. What repressive organization was Bakhtin forced to join in order to continue writing?

(see the answer key)

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