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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 "Indian Wonders."
(c) The "Oriental Tales."
(d) The "New World Chronicles."

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

3. In the political and religious conflicts of his time, Rabelais always took the ___________ stance.
(a) Progressive.
(b) Catholic.
(c) Cautious.
(d) Scientific.

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

5. What does Bakhtin argue is the relationship between the death of Tappecoue and the episode of the Catchpoles?
(a) The local people were shocked and saddened by each event.
(b) The sin of violence is paramount in each.
(c) Sexual relationships take center stage in each event.
(d) Freedom and equality are expressed bodily and coarsely in each event.

6. What does the etymology of Gargantua's name suggest his name means?
(a) The torso and the mass of the individual.
(b) The throat and the act of swallowing.
(c) The legs and the height of the individual.
(d) The genitals and the act of sexual intercourse.

7. What is a Renaissance "diablerie"?
(a) A series of prayers one says to beg forgiveness for misbehavior.
(b) A curse one shouts at another, meaning, "To the devil with you!"
(c) A portion of Carnival in which actors dress up as devils.
(d) A type of behavior manual that purports to stop devilish behavior.

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

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

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

11. From what does Panurge suggest the protective walls of Paris be built?
(a) Bull horns.
(b) Female genitalia.
(c) Arms of strong warriors.
(d) Monks' robes.

12. How does Gargantua's letter to Pantagruel challenge and attempt to change Catholic dogma?
(a) It assumes that the body, in addition to the soul, is also immortal.
(b) It argues that all forms of faith are equally valid.
(c) It asserts that there is no heaven, only hell.
(d) It re-envisions the doctrine of the trinity by adding humans to it.

13. In Medieval satires, the dismemberment of portions of the body relates to:
(a) The general conception of the divine.
(b) The human body itself.
(c) The separate portions of society.
(d) The topography of the continents.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What is especially apparent in Rabelais' own "Pantagruelesque Prognostic" prophecy?

2. Bakhtin finds food and drink representative of society because:

3. What are the languages involved in what Bakhtin terms the "triple linguistic process" of Rabelais' time?

4. Bakhtin defines Rabelais' giants as:

5. "Fat William," of comic folklore, symbolized:

(see the answer keys)

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