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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Curses in Renaissance folk culture tended to focus most closely upon the victim's:
(a) Mind.
(b) Family.
(c) Spirit.
(d) Body.

2. Why, according to Bakhtin, is Rabelais' parody of the Church not considered heresy?
(a) Rabelais maintains a comic style, so no one could mistake him for being serious.
(b) Rabelais follows every criticism with heartfelt praise.
(c) The Church received an annual tribute from Rabelais, so it overlooked his parodies.
(d) The clergy paid no attention to Rabelais' works.

3. The verbal interactions between the Renaissance marketplace hawker and the crowd were above all:
(a) Abusive and derogatory.
(b) Free and frank.
(c) Distantly suggestive.
(d) Timid and quiet.

4. What do oaths and curses have in common with town announcements and the calls of vendors?
(a) They all are forbidden during certain times of the year.
(b) They are the only socially acceptable methods of greeting strangers.
(c) They all are familiar parts of the society of the marketplace.
(d) They are all said with the same feelings in mind.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Clowns and fools are:

2. When did the Russian Revolution occur?

3. In the seventeenth century, the decline of laughter as a primary force in folk culture resulted from:

4. In Rabelais' time, jurons, or profanities and oaths, were most often concerned with:

5. Why does Bakhtin consider oaths, curses, and profanities elements of freedom?

Short Essay Questions

1. In general, what happened to the use of humor in literature after Rabelais' time?

2. Why do modern readers find it difficult to read Rabelais' novel?

3. What does the prologue of _Pantagruel_ parody?

4. What role do oaths and profanities fill in Rabelais' novel?

5. What does Bakhtin mean when he argues that laughter affirms the people's unofficial truth?

6. What is important about the figure of the physician in Rabelais' novel?

7. What about the episode of the Lord of Basche is carnivalesque?

8. Describe the Catchpoles and what they symbolize.

9. What was Bakhtin's relationship with the Russian Union of Writers?

10. What was the effect of the suspension of social hierarchies during Carnival?

(see the answer keys)

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