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

2. During the "feast of fools" and the "feast of the ass," laughter:

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

4. What do oaths and curses have in common with town announcements and the calls of vendors?

5. What are the "intelligentsia"?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Friar John.

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

3. What are the "cris de Paris," or "street cries"?

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

5. Describe the Catchpoles and what they symbolize.

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

7. Why does the speaker of the prologue of the Third Book invite only good men to drink?

8. How are being drenched in urine or covered in excrement treated in Rabelais' novel?

9. How does the marketplace become an indicator of folk culture in general?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the relationship between praise and abuse. Use examples of this theme from what Bakhtin identifies as billingsgate and marketplace language and from popular-festive forms in Chapters 2 and 3. How were praise and abuse part of the tradition of "unofficial" language, and specifically how did they oppose "official" language? Are there elements of the grotesque in praise and abuse?

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

Explain the role that herbalists, druggists, and physicians occupied in Renaissance France, and how Bakhtin incorporates them into his study of the marketplace in Rabelais' novel. How does Bakhtin relate the material body to physicians and medicine? How does Rabelais portray bodily ailments, physicians, heath, life, death, and birth?

(see the answer keys)

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