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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What do some critics argue has been absent from Russian literature?
(a) Religious fervor.
(b) Sexually-charged dialogue.
(c) A particularly Western type of humor.
(d) Political dissent.

2. Rabelais' description of Alcibiades reflects:
(a) The good/evil dichotomy of mankind.
(b) The image of Rabelais himself.
(c) The idea that ancient philosophies were incorrect.
(d) The abuse/praise dynamics of the marketplace.

3. To what does Bakhtin compare the various cries of Paris?
(a) A roaring storm.
(b) A howling wolf.
(c) A sobbing child.
(d) A crowded kitchen.

4. Why did Renaissance humanists attempt to suppress oaths and profanities?
(a) They were shocked to hear the Lord's name taken in vain.
(b) They felt that if one could not say something nice, one should say nothing at all.
(c) They viewed such language as predominantly atheistic.
(d) They saw such language as relics of the superstitious Middle Ages.

5. What do oaths and curses have in common with town announcements and the calls of vendors?
(a) They are the only socially acceptable methods of greeting strangers.
(b) They all are familiar parts of the society of the marketplace.
(c) They are all said with the same feelings in mind.
(d) They all are forbidden during certain times of the year.

Short Answer Questions

1. The prologue of _Pantagruel_ is a parody and travesty of:

2. How is the figure of the king treated in Rabelais' writing?

3. What in particular forms the basic elements of Rabelais' novel _Gargantua_?

4. How are abusive and praiseful words reflective of grotesque realism?

5. Curses in Renaissance folk culture tended to focus most closely upon the victim's:

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How is Bakhtin's book "double-voiced," as Michael Holquist asserts it is?

3. What does Bakhtin mean when he argues that laughter affirms the people's unofficial truth?

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

5. What was the general perception of laughter in the Renaissance?

6. What was the effect of the suspension of social hierarchies during Carnival?

7. What does the prologue of _Pantagruel_ parody?

8. Describe two episodes of beatings or injury are specifically centered around the theme of feasting.

9. What does tripe represent, in Bakhtin's analysis?

10. What do Rabelais' long lists of names and epithets signify?

(see the answer keys)

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