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. Why did Bakhtin feel his times were comparable to those of the Renaissance?
(a) Two political leaders of the different eras were incredibly alike.
(b) The literatures and cultures of both eras bore a distinct resemblance.
(c) The specific threat of disease was killing many people in both times.
(d) Both eras were times of broad social change that left people unsure of how to proceed.

2. What are the "intelligentsia"?
(a) A group of exclusively male scholars.
(b) A group which provides an interpretation of the world.
(c) The bits of knowledge all people accumulate over their lifetimes.
(d) An elite spy organization.

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

4. 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 treat Rabelais as a prophet of literary upheavals.
(c) They classify Rabelais as just as important as Shakespeare and Cervantes.
(d) They read Rabelais' works as allegory only.

5. In the seventeenth century, the decline of laughter as a primary force in folk culture resulted from:
(a) The exhaustion of any new sources of humor.
(b) The need of the public for other forms of diversion.
(c) The declining number of Carnival performers.
(d) An increasingly "official" culture of rationalism.