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. Bakhtin asserts that Rabelais' language, and the language of Renaissance France, was above all:
(a) Strict and immobile.
(b) Stagnant and dead.
(c) Free and flexible.
(d) Lacking foreign influence.

2. Where did Rabelais collect most of his rich vocabulary?
(a) From vernacular speech.
(b) From scientific treatises.
(c) From monastic inscriptions.
(d) From poetic manuscripts.

3. What is the "sia ammazzato" of which Goethe writes?
(a) The great feast in the middle of Carnival where everyone eats tripe.
(b) The final event of Carnival, in which the Church gives alms to the poor.
(c) A parade showcasing exotic animals and curious goods from distant lands.
(d) A portion of Carnival where everyone tries to blow out each other's candles.

4. What is especially apparent in Rabelais' own "Pantagruelesque Prognostic" prophecy?
(a) Predictions of wars and slaughter.
(b) Images of the material body and of festivity.
(c) Images of the wrath of nature and of destruction.
(d) Predictions concerning lovers.

5. What Renaissance series of works was highly influential to Rabelais' notion of the grotesque body?
(a) The "Indian Wonders."
(b) The "Nordic Fictions."
(c) The "New World Chronicles."
(d) The "Oriental Tales."

Short Answer Questions

1. What are examples of that which Bakhtin calls "cosmic terrors"?

2. In Medieval satires, the dismemberment of portions of the body relates to:

3. What body part is most often used in grotesque caricatures of sexual potency?

4. "Fat William," of comic folklore, symbolized:

5. Bakhtin finds that ___________ are especially closely interwoven with the grotesque body.

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is the significance of Friar John's description of the monastery belfry as "fecund"?

3. How does Rabelais use the element of popular speech known as "coq-à-l'âne"?

4. What is the significance of "cuckoldry," and how is it portrayed?

5. What is "cosmic fear," and how is it treated in Renaissance folk culture?

6. What did the Medieval stage resemble?

7. What does Bakhtin mean when he writes that popular-festive carnivalesque performances have no "footlights"?

8. Why does Bakhtin choose to relate Goethe to Rabelais' work?

9. Briefly describe the two opposing lines of thought in the "querelle des femmes."

10. What is the nature of the carnivalesque crowd in Rabelais' novel?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 927 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample