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

2. What type of work did Rabelais often publish, especially for the fairs?
(a) Calendars or almanacs.
(b) Political treatises.
(c) Religious tracts.
(d) Biographies of public figures.

3. How is the Rabelaisian use of tripe an excellent example of grotesque realism?
(a) It merges the positive and negative, or upper and lower, spheres of the body.
(b) It combines fantasy with reality in one type of cuisine.
(c) It is the epitome of disgusting.
(d) It is a drug which offers the user a glimpse of a higher plane of existence.

4. Carnival allowed:
(a) The mixing of real and unreal, fantasy and fact.
(b) The upper class to oppress relentlessly the lower class.
(c) The endurance of the propriety expected of all social classes.
(d) The peasants to sell their crops without paying taxes.

5. What do Rabelais' various works indicate about the popular notion of urination?
(a) Urination is disgusting and should be done privately.
(b) Urination fertilizes the earth and creates bodies of water.
(c) Urination can only be used for comic purposes.
(d) Urination is a medical mystery that baffles doctors.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Bakhtin, what is directly related to the oversized foods common at Renaissance feasts?

2. What repressive organization was Bakhtin forced to join in order to continue writing?

3. Bakhtin believes that novels are:

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

5. How does Bakhtin interpret the relevance of the cries of Paris to Renaissance France?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How is Bakhtin's book "double-voiced," as Michael Holquist asserts it is?

3. How is degradation expressed, in terms of Rabelais' grotesque realism?

4. How does Bakhtin interpret the prologue of _Pantagruel_?

5. Describe two episodes of beatings or injury are specifically centered around the theme of feasting.

6. How does the marketplace become an indicator of folk culture in general?

7. Describe Friar John.

8. What is Bakhtin's general idea about the purpose of art?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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