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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. Comic rituals in Medieval and Renaissance Europe were:

2. What are the "Catchpoles" of which Rabelais writes?

3. The vocabulary of the prologue of _Gargantua_ is:

4. What were "street cries"?

5. Carnival allowed:

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How is degradation expressed, in terms of Rabelais' grotesque realism?

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

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

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

6. Describe the Catchpoles and what they symbolize.

7. What does Rabelais parody with the character of Janotus de Bragmardo?

8. What is Bakhtin's general idea about the purpose of art?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain how laughter permeates every aspect of Renaissance folk culture, as Bakhtin argues it does. Cite specific examples from the text regarding the carnivalesque, the grotesque, official/unofficial modes of speech, and the ambivalence of certain forms and causes of laughter. Do these portrayals point to a greater "truth," as Bakhtin would say?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the meaning and significance of "grotesque realism." How is it manifested in Rabelais' time? How is the material body presented in the tradition of the grotesque? Why does Bakhtin connect folk culture so closely with the grotesque? Use examples from the text to support your points.

Essay Topic 3

How does Rabelais use myth in his work? What types of myth does he draw from (classical, popular, spiritual, etc.)? How are allusions to mythology a part of carnivalesque culture? Cite at least three specific examples of identifiable myths which Rabelais alludes to, alters, parodies, travesties, or repeats.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 868 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample