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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 assert is evident in Rabelais' use of games that combine play and prophecy?
(a) A highly spiritual notion of the relevance of human history.
(b) A ponderous, scholarly approach to the study of history.
(c) A disregard for the importance of historical figures.
(d) A carnivalesque conception of the historical process.

2. How is a "prophetic riddle" game carnivalesque in nature?
(a) It focuses on gaiety and humor.
(b) It stresses the importance of feasting and drinking.
(c) It is always sung in a rhymed singsong tone.
(d) It stresses the destruction of the established order and hierarchy of society.

3. What does Bakhtin argue is the relationship between the death of Tappecoue and the episode of the Catchpoles?
(a) The sin of violence is paramount in each.
(b) The local people were shocked and saddened by each event.
(c) Sexual relationships take center stage in each event.
(d) Freedom and equality are expressed bodily and coarsely in each event.

4. What does the etymology of Gargantua's name suggest his name means?
(a) The legs and the height of the individual.
(b) The throat and the act of swallowing.
(c) The torso and the mass of the individual.
(d) The genitals and the act of sexual intercourse.

5. Which grotesque elements does Bakhtin note were included in the procession of the feast of Corpus Christi?
(a) Representations of the sun, moon, and stars.
(b) Self-flagellating monks.
(c) Children dressed as animals.
(d) Monsters, giants, and indecent gestures.

Short Answer Questions

1. Bakhtin defines Rabelais' giants as:

2. What does Rabelais associate closely with the underworld?

3. Bakhtin describes Rabelais' depiction of the underworld as:

4. In the Fourth Book, why does Villon set a trap for Tappecoue (or "Ticklepecker")?

5. What happened to Rabelais after his novel was published?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was "prandial libertinism"?

2. What is significant about the language in which Rabelais writes and the sources of many of his words?

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

4. Discuss the significance of Gargantua's birth.

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

6. Why does Bakhtin assert that we cannot make the mistake of interpreting Rabelais' images of the material body lower stratum with our modern sensibilities?

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

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

9. Why does the logic of the grotesque ignore the closed surfaces of the body?

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

(see the answer keys)

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