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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Bakhtin thinks that life is:
(a) A sacrifice the soul makes to the body.
(b) Meaningless and futile.
(c) Organized by human acts of behavior and cognition.
(d) Inert, chaotic, and requiring the intervention of art.

2. How is the figure of the king treated in Rabelais' writing?
(a) Like a child: pampered, sheltered, and beloved.
(b) Like a god: worshipped, feared, and obeyed.
(c) Like a criminal: charged, tried, and punished.
(d) Like a clown: beaten, travestied, and transformed.

3. How, according to Bakhtin, does the current Russian literary criticism approach Rabelais' works?
(a) By sharing them with an eager public.
(b) By denouncing them as counterproductive to the ongoing Russian Revolution.
(c) By reviving their content in new, twentieth-century forms.
(d) By trying to correctly interpret the source of the cultural laughter within them.

4. What was unique about the Russian Revolution?
(a) Only the elite class was involved.
(b) People of all classes and occupations were centrally involved.
(c) It continues into the present day.
(d) It was purely a religious revolt.

5. 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 person saying the insult never means it seriously.
(c) Because the debased person may choose to deflect the debasement.
(d) Because the head is quite separate from all the other parts of the body, spiritually and materially.

6. What does young Gargantua study in order to become acquainted with the common folk?
(a) Interactions between men and women.
(b) Physically demanding activities.
(c) Herbs and medicines.
(d) The way young people are educated.

7. Why did Bakhtin feel his times were comparable to those of the Renaissance?
(a) Both eras were times of broad social change that left people unsure of how to proceed.
(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) Two political leaders of the different eras were incredibly alike.

8. The core images of the prologue of _Gargantua_ are:
(a) Scenes of eating and drinking.
(b) Scenes of violence.
(c) Scenes of travel and journeys.
(d) Scenes of pious worship.

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

10. What type of work did Rabelais often publish, especially for the fairs?
(a) Biographies of public figures.
(b) Calendars or almanacs.
(c) Political treatises.
(d) Religious tracts.

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

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

13. How is the Rabelaisian use of tripe an excellent example of grotesque realism?
(a) It is the epitome of disgusting.
(b) It combines fantasy with reality in one type of cuisine.
(c) It merges the positive and negative, or upper and lower, spheres of the body.
(d) It is a drug which offers the user a glimpse of a higher plane of existence.

14. What common fifteenth- and sixteenth-century literary device does Bakhtin identify in the Prologue to the Third Book?
(a) Blank verse.
(b) Long lists of names and epithets.
(c) Complaints about love.
(d) Invocations to the Muse.

15. How did Rabelais obtain the material for his writings?
(a) By studying manuscripts for long hours in monasteries.
(b) By receiving a divine revelation.
(c) By interviewing thousands of market vendors.
(d) By attending many fairs and festivals and observing all the people there.

Short Answer Questions

1. The purpose of "travesty" in folk festivals was to:

2. How are abusive and praiseful words reflective of grotesque realism?

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

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

5. Why did Renaissance humanists attempt to suppress oaths and profanities?

(see the answer keys)

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