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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 11, Chapter 3 - Popular - Festive Forms.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why was gaming very important in the Renaissance?
(a) Games defined the distinction between social classes.
(b) Gaming reinforced the "official" ways of thinking.
(c) Games represented another form of understanding the cycle of life.
(d) Gaming was deemed sinful and was forbidden by the Church.

2. In Rabelais' time, why was the meaning of debasement often ambivalent?
(a) Because the decaying or excretory organs are closely located to the regenerative genital organs.
(b) Because the debased person may choose to deflect the debasement.
(c) Because the person saying the insult never means it seriously.
(d) Because the head is quite separate from all the other parts of the body, spiritually and materially.

3. According to Bakhtin, Carnival was the true symbol and incarnation of:
(a) The natural world.
(b) The sanctity of the Church.
(c) The folk festival.
(d) The power of the monarchy.

4. Bakhtin considers "thrashing" ambivalent, rather than strictly negative, because:
(a) The act of thrashing is done to punish the individual.
(b) The one who is thrashed is also decorated and celebrated.
(c) The one who is thrashed explicitly agrees to the act.
(d) The act of thrashing is done out of kindness.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Why, according to Bakhtin, is Rabelais' parody of the Church not considered heresy?

2. What does young Gargantua study in order to become acquainted with the common folk?

3. What does Bakhtin argue is the role of dialogue?

4. In the folklore and grotesque realism of Rabelais' works, excrement represents bodies and matter that are:

5. Rabelais' description of Alcibiades reflects:

(see the answer key)

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