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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. From what does Panurge suggest the protective walls of Paris be built?

2. How does Friar John interpret the riddle he and Gargantua hear?

3. How does Bakhtin say Ivan the Terrible of Russia was similar to Rabelais?

4. According to Bakhtin, how did Rabelais invent many of the locales and characters in his novel?

5. Bakhtin notes that two of the most commonly combined themes in Medieval popular literature relating to monks are:

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is the significance of the two Russian eras of history to which Bakhtin refers in Chapter Three?

3. Why is the "Hippocratic Anthology" significant to Rabelais' work?

4. Which elements of Villon and Tappecoue's (Ticklepecker's) episode make it a "tragic farce"?

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

6. Discuss the significance of Gargantua's birth.

7. How do the Medieval and Renaissance pictures of the cosmos differ?

8. What is the connection between the banquet and speech?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What connections do Bakhtin and the authors of the Foreword and the Prologue draw between Bakhtin and Rabelais? How were their lives and times similar? What common themes are evident in their writing? In which important ways do they differ?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Examine the structure, the presence, and the purpose of the Foreword and the Prologue. What do they offer to the reader? What is the purpose of a foreword or a prologue--what is the function of writing an introduction to someone else's book? Can, or do, such prefatory remarks influence the reader's experience of the text? Can reading ever be a "pure" activity with no outside influence of opinion?

(see the answer keys)

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