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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 7, Chapter 2, Language of the Marketplace Cont..

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why are Rabelais' billingsgate elements considered "coarse and cynical" by most scholars?
(a) These elements express a deep distrust of contemporary society.
(b) Many scholars believe that Rabelais himself was bitter from publication disputes.
(c) Many scholars interpret them only in a modern context.
(d) The Latin derivations of his scatological vocabulary mean "cynical."

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

3. What were "street cries"?
(a) The calls of the city bellringer telling the time.
(b) The warnings people yell when they throw the contents of their chamber pot out the window.
(c) The sobs of orphans who live on the street.
(d) The shouted, versified advertisements of market vendors.

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

5. The prologue of _Pantagruel_ is a parody and travesty of:
(a) The fables of ancient Greece.
(b) The pomp and circumstance of the aristocracy.
(c) The ecclesiastical persuasiveness of the Church.
(d) The ignorance of the peasantry.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Bakhtin define the novel?

2. How does the prologue of _Pantagruel_ demonstrate the connection between literature and the marketplace?

3. To what does Veselovsky compare Rabelais?

4. Comic rituals in Medieval and Renaissance Europe were:

5. What do Rabelais' various works indicate about the popular notion of urination?

(see the answer key)

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