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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why does Bakhtin cite Goethe as a source about the nature of Carnival?
(a) Goethe and Rabelais were contemporaries and corresponded with each other regularly.
(b) Goethe's negative views about the common people provide a counterpoint to Bakhtin's views.
(c) Goethe was passionately interested in the festivity.
(d) Goethe was the official organizer of Carnival in Frankfurt.

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

3. What in Rabelais' novel is a travesty of Gospel miracles?
(a) Gargantua's glimpse into heaven and dialogue with God.
(b) Friar John's defense of the abbey vineyards and beating of thousands.
(c) Epistemon's resurrection and visions of the underworld.
(d) Panurge's seduction of a local knight's wife.

4. Bakhtin finds food and drink representative of society because:
(a) Certain societies eat only certain foods.
(b) Feasts were the only time available for socialization.
(c) The type of food or drink determines the type of person.
(d) The work of collecting and preparing meals was a community affair.

5. What is the theme of "cuckoldry"?
(a) The portion of the feast in which all the fowl are consumed.
(b) The introduction of one rooster into a rowdy henhouse.
(c) The act of voting a new mayor and chasing the old one out of town.
(d) The rejection of an old husband and the crowning of a new husband.

6. What body part is most often used in grotesque caricatures of sexual potency?
(a) The hands.
(b) The nose.
(c) The torso.
(d) The feet.

7. How does Bakhtin define the episode involving Villon and Tappecoue?
(a) As an epic drama.
(b) As a comedic interlude.
(c) As a tragic farce.
(d) As a historical re-enactment.

8. What does Bakhtin assert is evident in Rabelais' use of games that combine play and prophecy?
(a) A disregard for the importance of historical figures.
(b) A highly spiritual notion of the relevance of human history.
(c) A ponderous, scholarly approach to the study of history.
(d) A carnivalesque conception of the historical process.

9. What are the languages involved in what Bakhtin terms the "triple linguistic process" of Rabelais' time?
(a) Medieval Latin, Middle French, and Middle German.
(b) Classic Latin, Medieval Latin, and vernacular French.
(c) Classic Latin, Middle French, and vernacular French.
(d) Medieval Latin, Old French, and Middle French.

10. Bakhtin asserts that Rabelais' grotesque conception of the body reflected:
(a) The Renaissance re-envisioning of the cosmos.
(b) The Calvinist idea of predestination and grace.
(c) The Classical philosophy of Epicureanism.
(d) The Medieval doctrine of natural hierarchy.

11. What happened to Rabelais after his novel was published?
(a) He was severely censured by the Church, then imprisoned and killed.
(b) He was attacked by the Church and the government, but he remained free and successful.
(c) He was questioned about his loyalty to France, then drafted into the army.
(d) He was praised for his honest portrayals of the people and given a government pension.

12. Bakhtin generally finds Goethe's sense of Carnival's _____________ to agree with his own views.
(a) Religiousness.
(b) Universalism.
(c) Pessimism.
(d) Poetic expression.

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

14. To what are "swabs" most closely related?
(a) The material body upper stratum.
(b) The material body lower stratum.
(c) The liver and gallbladder's production of bile.
(d) The spiritual intellect's conversant function

15. Bakhtin discusses "Cyprian's Supper," which is a play about:
(a) A man who fasted for a year.
(b) Greed which results in a shortage of food.
(c) Figures from the Bible at a great feast.
(d) A wedding banquet for a prince.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Bakhtin, the "birth" of the word by the clown is an example of:

2. In Rabelais' novel, the words "to die" are closely associated with:

3. Bakhtin asserts that Rabelais' language, and the language of Renaissance France, was above all:

4. Gargamelle gives birth to Gargantua as a result of:

5. In the example Schneegans offers, what does Rabelais' Friar John assert makes women fertile?

(see the answer keys)

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