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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 significant thing did translators of Rabelais' work add to their translations?
2. Why does Bakhtin cite Goethe as a source about the nature of Carnival?
3. Goethe traces the roots of Carnival to the:
4. What actual event probably inspired Rabelais' story of Pantagruel's birth?
5. One of Rabelais' main sources for his enumerations of food was a Medieval treatise about:
Short Essay Questions
1. What is "cosmic fear," and how is it treated in Renaissance folk culture?
2. Discuss the significance of Gargantua's birth.
3. What is significant about the language in which Rabelais writes and the sources of many of his words?
4. Which elements of Villon and Tappecoue's (Ticklepecker's) episode make it a "tragic farce"?
5. Why does Bakhtin assert that we cannot make the mistake of interpreting Rabelais' images of the material body lower stratum with our modern sensibilities?
6. What is the significance of "cuckoldry," and how is it portrayed?
7. What does Bakhtin mean when he writes that popular-festive carnivalesque performances have no "footlights"?
8. How does Rabelais respond to the geographical changes of his own time and world?
9. What is the role of games in Rabelais' work?
10. How does Rabelais construct the episode of Epistemon's resurrection and of his visions in the underworld?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Discuss the "querelle des femmes" and Rabelais' perspective on it. How does Rabelais' novel portray women and femininity? Is Bakhtin's explanation of Rabelais' perspective on the querelle des femmes problematic in any way? Feel free to address this issue using terms of modern feminist theory.
Essay Topic 2
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?
Essay Topic 3
Explore Bakhtin's study of language in Rabelais. What is "vernacular" or "colloquial" language? How is it different from "official" languages, like that of the Church or of the monarchy? How is verbal communication different from written communication, and who or what does each type of communication serve? How does Rabelais keep his language lively and never dull? How does Rabelais transform names, nicknames, proper nouns, and all other forms of speech?
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This section contains 1,081 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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