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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. Bakhtin discusses "Cyprian's Supper," which is a play about:
2. What does Bakhtin assert is evident in Rabelais' plan for Pantagruel's journey?
3. In which element of Shakespeare's dramas does Bakhtin see the overall theme of Rabelais' carnivalesque repeated?
4. Bakhtin asserts that the spirit of Carnival is essentially:
5. What episode does Bakhtin cite as exemplifying the image of the gaping mouth prevalent in Rabelais' novel?
Short Essay Questions
1. What is the role of games in Rabelais' work?
2. Why are eating and drinking two of the most important manifestations of the grotesque body?
3. What is the significance of the figure of the androgyne in Rabelais' novel?
4. What is the significance of Friar John's description of the monastery belfry as "fecund"?
5. What was "prandial libertinism"?
6. How do the Medieval and Renaissance pictures of the cosmos differ?
7. Why does Bakhtin assert that we cannot make the mistake of interpreting Rabelais' images of the material body lower stratum with our modern sensibilities?
8. How does Rabelais construct the episode of Epistemon's resurrection and of his visions in the underworld?
9. What is "cosmic fear," and how is it treated in Renaissance folk culture?
10. What did the Medieval stage resemble?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
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.
Essay Topic 2
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 3
Choose three main characters from Rabelais' novel and explain the meanings of their names (for example, Gargantua, Pantagruel, Panurge, King Anarchus, Friar John, Lord Basche, etc.) Discuss any connotations their names may have, any allusions to people, places, historical events, or mythology, and what their names represent in the context of carnivalesque folk culture.
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This section contains 1,017 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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