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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. One of Rabelais' main sources for his enumerations of food was a Medieval treatise about:
(a) The proper order in which to eat banquet foods.
(b) Restrictions of food for pregnant women.
(c) The ways in which chicken tasted better than pheasant.
(d) Lenten and non-Lenten foods.

2. In the example Schneegans offers, what does Rabelais' Friar John assert makes women fertile?
(a) Eating a lot of tripe.
(b) The caress of a king.
(c) Prayer to the protective saint of childbirth.
(d) The shadow of the abbey belfry

3. How does Bakhtin define "carnivalesque hell"?
(a) Ambivalent because it includes both fear and laughter.
(b) Negative because everyone, including demons, are always suffering.
(c) Depraved because it encourages wanton sexual gratification.
(d) Leisurely because everyone seems to be on holiday.

4. "The Treatise of Garcia of Toledo," which Bakhtin cites, is notable for:
(a) Its disregard for the festive tradition.
(b) Its portrayal of the gluttony of the Pope.
(c) Its retelling of ancient myths and fables.
(d) Its simple philosophy of religious asceticism.

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

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

7. Bakhtin asserts that in Rabelais' time, food and banquets always contained a sense of:
(a) Depression and resignation.
(b) Victory and regeneration.
(c) Intellectual stimulation.
(d) Physical discomfort.

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

9. According to Schneegans, what is the grotesque in art?
(a) A spoken-word performance involving violent acts.
(b) A caricature that has reached exaggerated dimensions.
(c) A portrait that has been defaced.
(d) A representation of an otherworldly object.

10. What is revealed in images of "negation"?
(a) The harmful aspects of society.
(b) The opposition to the official world.
(c) The refusal of commitment between lovers.
(d) The destructive impulse of humanity.

11. In Rabelais' novel, the "ancestral body" to which Bakhtin refers means:
(a) The record of births and deaths kept by local churches.
(b) The generative organs which produce children.
(c) The features of one's body in which one resembles one's parents.
(d) The portions of the body that die over time, like hair and fingernails.

12. Bakhtin asserts that man introduces the world to himself primarily through which act?
(a) Observing nature.
(b) Sexual intercourse.
(c) Conversation.
(d) Eating.

13. What actual event probably inspired Rabelais' story of Pantagruel's birth?
(a) An earthquake which devastated southern France.
(b) The French victory of a battle with the Spanish.
(c) A famine resulting from an unusually cold winter.
(d) An unusual heat wave and drought.

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

15. What does Panurge fear if he gets married?
(a) That he will eventually be cuckolded.
(b) That he will marry an ugly woman.
(c) That his wife will never love him.
(d) That he will not be able to have a son.

Short Answer Questions

1. Bakhtin notes that two of the most commonly combined themes in Medieval popular literature relating to monks are:

2. Bakhtin asserts that Rabelais' grotesque conception of the body reflected:

3. What does Bakhtin consider the "symposium" of Medieval grotesque realism?

4. How does Bakhtin define the episode involving Villon and Tappecoue?

5. What does Bakhtin argue is the relationship between the death of Tappecoue and the episode of the Catchpoles?

(see the answer keys)

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