View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Medieval parodies were:
(a) Concerned with the positive, humorous aspects of everything.
(b) Limited to parody of individuals.
(c) Limited to religious parody.
(d) Focused on the negative aspects of society.

2. Which answer best describes "grotesque realism"?
(a) The writing must strive to be as mathematically or geometrically accurate as possible in its descriptions.
(b) The author's focus must be on bodily gore, blood, death, and dying.
(c) The bodily element is universal, celebratory, positive, and exaggerated.
(d) The tone of the writing is always dark, Gothic, and depressing.

3. What are the "intelligentsia"?
(a) A group of exclusively male scholars.
(b) An elite spy organization.
(c) A group which provides an interpretation of the world.
(d) The bits of knowledge all people accumulate over their lifetimes.

4. To what does Veselovsky compare Rabelais?
(a) A village boy.
(b) An ironfisted dictator.
(c) A pious priest.
(d) An elderly scholar.

5. How does Bakhtin interpret the relevance of the cries of Paris to Renaissance France?
(a) The cries suggest a deep discontent in the Parisian populace.
(b) The cries negate the revitalization of the marketplace.
(c) The cries were the people's only method of exchanging ideas.
(d) The cries combine the reality of practical life with festive utopian universalism.

Short Answer Questions

1. Bakhtin asserts that the advertisement for "pantagruelion" in the Third Book expresses:

2. During Bakhtin's time, what genre was being closely defined by the Soviet government?

3. "Tripe" literally refers to:

4. What do oaths and curses have in common with town announcements and the calls of vendors?

5. What type of work did Rabelais often publish, especially for the fairs?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does Rabelais describe the human body in the context of grotesque realism?

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

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

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

6. Why does the speaker of the prologue of the Third Book invite only good men to drink?

7. What do Bakhtin's examples of Rabelais' tales of extraordinary urination have in common?

8. What was Rabelais' relationship with the fairs based upon?

9. How are being drenched in urine or covered in excrement treated in Rabelais' novel?

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 885 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample