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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. Bakhtin believes that novels are:
(a) Inherently confessional.
(b) Random, like stream-of-consciousness.
(c) Socially charged and polemical.
(d) Utterly separate from the author's own life.

2. According to Bakhtin, what is directly related to the oversized foods common at Renaissance feasts?
(a) The general health of a town's population.
(b) Bodily restraint as a result of mind over matter.
(c) Grotesque portrayals of the stomach, mouth, and genitals.
(d) The swelling of religious fervor during holy days.

3. What does the "form" of any kind of art express?
(a) The materials from which the art is constructed.
(b) Whatever the audience chooses.
(c) A system of values.
(d) Only one possible message.

4. How does Rabelais accomplish the grotesque degradation of his target in the prologue to the Third Book?
(a) By declaring the targets to be empty-headed.
(b) By declaring the targets incapable of the basest bodily functions.
(c) By accusing the targets of paganism and crimes against the Church.
(d) By insulting the targets' mothers.

5. Why was Rabelais linked so closely to the Lyon fairs?
(a) Rabelais was a performing clown for several years in these fairs.
(b) Rabelais was a chief organizer of these fairs.
(c) The organizers of the fairs in Lyon banned Rabelais from attending them.
(d) Lyon fairs represented one of the largest markets for publishing.

Short Answer Questions

1. How are abusive and praiseful words reflective of grotesque realism?

2. How does the Lord of Basche contrive to bring Catchpoles to his castle?

3. How, according to Bakhtin, does the current Russian literary criticism approach Rabelais' works?

4. Carnival allowed:

5. What are the "Catchpoles" of which Rabelais writes?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Bakhtin get around the prohibition of certain kinds of satire and irony in his own time?

2. What does tripe represent, in Bakhtin's analysis?

3. What does the prologue of _Pantagruel_ parody?

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

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

6. What are the "cris de Paris," or "street cries"?

7. Describe Friar John.

8. What is the underlying nature of all of Rabelais' images?

9. What was the general perception of laughter in the Renaissance?

10. Describe the Renaissance student writings.

(see the answer keys)

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