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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Bakhtin interpret the relevance of the cries of Paris to Renaissance France?
(a) The cries negate the revitalization of the marketplace.
(b) The cries combine the reality of practical life with festive utopian universalism.
(c) The cries were the people's only method of exchanging ideas.
(d) The cries suggest a deep discontent in the Parisian populace.

2. The purpose of "travesty" in folk festivals was to:
(a) Irreversibly denigrate everything it could.
(b) Call upon something serious and make it amusing.
(c) Indicate the importance of travel to an individual's self-development.
(d) Reassert traditional definitions of social and spiritual life.

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

4. How does Bakhtin define the novel?
(a) As a multiplicity of styles.
(b) As a single-voiced text.
(c) As a work of pure imagination.
(d) As a worthless type of literature.

5. Bakhtin asserts that the advertisement for "pantagruelion" in the Third Book expresses:
(a) The deep optimism inherent in Rabelais' view of marketplace culture.
(b) The natural mistrust the common folk have for druggists.
(c) The cynicism rampant in Rabelais' writing.
(d) The existentialist confusion of Renaissance marketplace culture.

6. Why, according to Bakhtin, is Rabelais' parody of the Church not considered heresy?
(a) The Church received an annual tribute from Rabelais, so it overlooked his parodies.
(b) Rabelais follows every criticism with heartfelt praise.
(c) Rabelais maintains a comic style, so no one could mistake him for being serious.
(d) The clergy paid no attention to Rabelais' works.

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

8. What is "man's second nature," according to Renaissance Christian doctrine?
(a) The thoughtfulness of the individual mind.
(b) The celebratory but degrading impulse toward gluttony, scatology, and sex.
(c) Man's higher spiritual calling.
(d) The way people act differently around those of another social class.

9. What was the reception of Rabelais' work in the eighteenth century?
(a) Other writers strove to emulate his style.
(b) His work was viewed as unintelligible and barbaric.
(c) Other writers used his topics as a jumping-off point for their own works.
(d) His work was viewed as a revival of Classical writing.

10. What are examples of carnivalesque victims?
(a) Debased clowns and slaughtered oxen.
(b) Stray dogs and street orphans.
(c) Blushing virgins and old maids.
(d) Peasants and tax collectors.

11. The episode in which Pantagruel and his companions defeat King Anarchus' knights combines:
(a) Slaughter with feasting.
(b) Human instinct with forethought.
(c) Nature with artifice.
(d) Love with hate.

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

13. With what portion of the body is grotesque debasement most concerned?
(a) The spiritual interior essence.
(b) The material lower stratum.
(c) The head and eyes.
(d) The arms and legs.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What are the targets of the abusive language in Rabelais' prologue to the Third Book?

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

3. What common fifteenth- and sixteenth-century literary device does Bakhtin identify in the Prologue to the Third Book?

4. What style does Bakhtin find the prologue of _Pantagruel_ to be written in?

5. In the Prologue of the Third Book, to which contemporary events does Rabelais allude?

(see the answer keys)

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