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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What style does Bakhtin find the prologue of _Pantagruel_ to be written in?

2. According to Bakhtin's semiotic understanding, what irony is inherent within the creative power of language?

3. How are abusive and praiseful words reflective of grotesque realism?

4. What was the reception of Rabelais' work in the eighteenth century?

5. The combination of solemnity and joking in the tone of the Prologue to the Third Book indicates:

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the underlying nature of all of Rabelais' images?

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

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

4. What was the "feast of fools," and why was it a particularly festive laughter in the Middle Ages?

5. What does Bakhtin mean when he argues that laughter affirms the people's unofficial truth?

6. Why does Bakhtin state that in Rabelais' novel everyday kitchen implements and foods have an intrinsic value?

7. In general, what happened to the use of humor in literature after Rabelais' time?

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

9. Describe the Catchpoles and what they symbolize.

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the theme of debasement in Medieval and Renaissance folk culture. How was debasement associated with the lower stratum of the body? Who or what were targets of debasement? How was debasement or degradation accomplished? How is humor associated with debasement? What is the ambivalent nature of debasement in folk culture?

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast the Medieval and Renaissance views of the world, including the individual, social, and cosmic aspects of the world. What spurred the change from the Medieval to the Renaissance way of thinking? How is this change, and the social, political, and religious controversies or struggles that accompanied it, evident in Rabelais' novel?

Essay Topic 3

What role or roles do banquet images play in Rabelais' novel? How are they connected to popular-festive forms? How does Bakhtin interpret the material body in Rabelais' banquet imagery? How do banquets, eating, and drinking express folk culture? Refer to examples from the text.

(see the answer keys)

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