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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. What does Bakhtin consider the "symposium" of Medieval grotesque realism?
(a) The tradition of festive speech.
(b) Bear-baiting in the town square.
(c) Refereed debates between two clergymen.
(d) Vows spoken between lovers.

2. What particular tradition did Peter the Great bring to Russia from Western Europe?
(a) Tragic dramas and historical stage-plays.
(b) The debasement of the Church during Carnival.
(c) Clownlike crowning and uncrownings at feasts.
(d) Market vendors loudly advertising their wares.

3. What are examples of that which Bakhtin calls "cosmic terrors"?
(a) The sky, the sea, and natural disasters.
(b) Vengeful pagan deities.
(c) Atheists who insult and threaten God.
(d) Violent beings from another universe.

4. Bakhtin asserts that the spirit of Carnival is essentially:
(a) One of pessimism and regression.
(b) One of immortality and regeneration.
(c) One of innocence and confusion.
(d) One of dullness and duty.

5. Why did Hippocrates assert such an influence on Rabelais?
(a) The theme of the grotesque body in his works.
(b) The theme of religious fervor in his works.
(c) Hippocrates' exclusive emphasis on folk culture.
(d) All his works were set in the marketplace.

Short Answer Questions

1. In the political and religious conflicts of his time, Rabelais always took the ___________ stance.

2. In Rabelais' novel, the "ancestral body" to which Bakhtin refers means:

3. What episode does Bakhtin cite as exemplifying the image of the gaping mouth prevalent in Rabelais' novel?

4. In which element of Shakespeare's dramas does Bakhtin see the overall theme of Rabelais' carnivalesque repeated?

5. What actual event probably inspired Rabelais' story of Pantagruel's birth?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is "folly" ambivalent?

2. Describe the figure of "Gros Guillaume" and his significance to Rabelais' novel.

3. Which elements of Villon and Tappecoue's (Ticklepecker's) episode make it a "tragic farce"?

4. What is the significance of the two Russian eras of history to which Bakhtin refers in Chapter Three?

5. What is the connection between the banquet and speech?

6. What is the significance of the figure of the androgyne in Rabelais' novel?

7. How does Rabelais strengthen the exaggerated themes of his grotesque realism?

8. What did the Medieval stage resemble?

9. What is the role of games in Rabelais' work?

10. How does Rabelais respond to the geographical changes of his own time and world?

(see the answer keys)

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