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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What Renaissance series of works was highly influential to Rabelais' notion of the grotesque body?
(a) The "Nordic Fictions."
(b) The "New World Chronicles."
(c) The "Indian Wonders."
(d) The "Oriental Tales."

2. Bakhtin defines Rabelais' giants as:
(a) Divine images.
(b) Subhuman creatures.
(c) Grotesque figures.
(d) Debased clowns.

3. The principle of "negation" in popular-festive imagery is always:
(a) Vulgar and dirty: always having to do with the material body lower stratum.
(b) Tangible and obvious: one thing turned about for another.
(c) Abstract and theoretical: imaginary rather than actualized.
(d) Spiritual and sacred: following the doctrines of the Catholic Church.

4. How does Bakhtin interpret Rabelais' work as a response to the hardships of France in 1532?
(a) The novel offers spiritual guidance through hard times.
(b) The novel reinforces the misery the people suffered.
(c) The novel chastises the people for bringing suffering on themselves.
(d) The novel provides a merry alternative to suffering.

5. What are examples of that which Bakhtin calls "cosmic terrors"?
(a) The sky, the sea, and natural disasters.
(b) Atheists who insult and threaten God.
(c) Violent beings from another universe.
(d) Vengeful pagan deities.

6. The defense of the abbey by Friar John contains:
(a) A grotesque combination of sexual intercourse and war.
(b) A travestied allusion to Communion.
(c) A caricature of the Pope.
(d) A debasing description of the French people.

7. Bakhtin describes Rabelais' depiction of the underworld as:
(a) A "hopeful space."
(b) A "crossroads."
(c) A "terrible fright."
(d) A "final destination."

8. What significant thing did translators of Rabelais' work add to their translations?
(a) Lists of games played in their own countries.
(b) Editorial remarks in the form of footnotes.
(c) Critical inquiry of the validity of Rabelais' portrayal of marketplace culture.
(d) Lists of street cries common in their own countries.

9. Bakhtin asserts that in the episode of Gargantua's birth, the dividing lines between _______ are erased.
(a) Earthly and divine spiritual relationships.
(b) Human and animal consciousness.
(c) Children and adults.
(d) Human and animal organs.

10. Gargamelle gives birth to Gargantua as a result of:
(a) A spirit impregnating her.
(b) Eating too much tripe.
(c) Casting a spell of birth.
(d) Praying for a child.

11. What word characterizes Medieval thinking, according to Bakhtin?
(a) Scientific.
(b) Hierarchical.
(c) Self-contradictory.
(d) Pessimistic.

12. At the beginning of Chapter 6, Bakhtin argues that Rabelais' entire novel exhibits a clear, general __________ thematic trend.
(a) Liberal.
(b) Upward.
(c) Conservative.
(d) Downward.

13. Which aspect of Renaissance culture does Bakhtin stress is still apparent in Western society today?
(a) Public thrashings.
(b) Clowns and fools.
(c) Carnival.
(d) Street cries.

14. How does Bakhtin interpret Rabelais' term "agelast"?
(a) It is the person who brings up the rear of the great Carnival parade.
(b) It is a person who delights in causing pain to others.
(c) It is a person who is hostile to laughter or who does not know how to laugh.
(d) It is an elderly person whose grouchy moods isolate him/her.

15. How does Bakhtin define the combination of human and animal organs in Rabelais' novel?
(a) "Grotesque."
(b) "Otherworldly."
(c) "Horrifying."
(d) "Scientific."

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did Hippocrates assert such an influence on Rabelais?

2. How does Gargantua's letter to Pantagruel challenge and attempt to change Catholic dogma?

3. What actual event probably inspired Rabelais' story of Pantagruel's birth?

4. What do wine and oil symbolize in Rabelais' novel?

5. Bakhtin defines the early French work "The Play in the Bower" as a:

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