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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Bakhtin associates Friar John's beating of the men with:
(a) The Dionysian feast of the grape harvest.
(b) Juvenalian satires of public figures.
(c) The last charge of Charlemagne.
(d) Market vendors who assault non-paying customers.

2. How did the French Romanticists respond to Rabelais' works?
(a) With disgust and negative criticism.
(b) With an appreciation of, and interest in, the grotesque.
(c) With complete understanding of Medieval and Renaissance culture.
(d) They ignored Rabelais completely.

3. In Rabelais' time, jurons, or profanities and oaths, were most often concerned with:
(a) Family ties, such as one's in-laws.
(b) Marketplace vendors who cheated their customers.
(c) Sacred themes, such as saints and relics.
(d) Monarchs who subjugated their people.

4. When did the Russian Revolution occur?
(a) 1936.
(b) 1945.
(c) 1917.
(d) 1850.

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

6. In the Renaissance, bodily excretions were closely associated with:
(a) The social status of the individual.
(b) The inherent evilness or goodness of the individual.
(c) The individual's sexual purity.
(d) The overall health of the individual.

7. Why does Friar John beat thousands of men in his abbey?
(a) To save the abbey's vineyards.
(b) Another Friar challenged him.
(c) To save France from atheism.
(d) As a show of force to deter invaders.

8. What are the targets of the abusive language in Rabelais' prologue to the Third Book?
(a) Representatives of old, hypocritical, serious Medieval philosophy.
(b) Average townsfolk who have imbibed too much wine.
(c) Members of the aristocracy whose political ideals are not in keeping with Rabelais' ideals.
(d) Foreign travelers who have offended the traditions of Carnival.

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

10. What work of literature is parodied in the prologue of _Gargantua_?
(a) Dante's _Divine Comedy_
(b) Malory's _Le Morte d'Arthur_
(c) Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_
(d) Plato's _Symposium_

11. How are abusive and praiseful words reflective of grotesque realism?
(a) The words reflect incompatible sides of certain social classes of people.
(b) The words are spoken in a language the listener cannot understand, so they sound like gibberish.
(c) The words are carefully chosen by the speaker to disgust the listener.
(d) The words combine two sides of the same form or feeling into an ambivalent but cohesive social structure.

12. Did the "unofficial" and "official" forms of speech ever coincide?
(a) Yes, except for religious holidays.
(b) No, except during times of war.
(c) Yes, especially during festivals.
(d) No, both forms of speech were highly regulated.

13. Why was Rabelais linked so closely to the Lyon fairs?
(a) Lyon fairs represented one of the largest markets for publishing.
(b) Rabelais was a chief organizer of these fairs.
(c) Rabelais was a performing clown for several years in these fairs.
(d) The organizers of the fairs in Lyon banned Rabelais from attending them.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What was unique about the Russian Revolution?

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

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

4. What type of work did Rabelais often publish, especially for the fairs?

5. Why does Bakhtin consider oaths, curses, and profanities elements of freedom?

(see the answer keys)

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