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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. How does the prologue of _Pantagruel_ demonstrate the connection between literature and the marketplace?
(a) It begins with a detailed description of the author's hometown marketplace.
(b) It exhorts its readers to record in writing their own experiences of fairs and of Carnival.
(c) It simultaneously advertises itself and praises the public.
(d) It offers a pricey alternative to illiteracy.

2. Bakhtin considers "thrashing" ambivalent, rather than strictly negative, because:
(a) The act of thrashing is done to punish the individual.
(b) The act of thrashing is done out of kindness.
(c) The one who is thrashed is also decorated and celebrated.
(d) The one who is thrashed explicitly agrees to the act.

3. Why does Friar John beat thousands of men in his abbey?
(a) To save the abbey's vineyards.
(b) Another Friar challenged him.
(c) To save France from atheism.
(d) As a show of force to deter invaders.

4. How does the Lord of Basche contrive to bring Catchpoles to his castle?
(a) By offering people absolution from their sins.
(b) By giving away his possessions.
(c) By celebrating Mass.
(d) By celebrating mock weddings.

5. Bakhtin associates Friar John's beating of the men with:
(a) The last charge of Charlemagne.
(b) The Dionysian feast of the grape harvest.
(c) Market vendors who assault non-paying customers.
(d) Juvenalian satires of public figures.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. "Friar John" is heavily associated with:

3. What does young Gargantua study in order to become acquainted with the common folk?

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

5. What style does Bakhtin find the prologue of _Pantagruel_ to be written in?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is important about the figure of the physician in Rabelais' novel?

3. What was Bakhtin's relationship with the Russian Union of Writers?

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

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

6. Describe the Renaissance student writings.

7. Describe the Catchpoles and what they symbolize.

8. What role do oaths and profanities fill in Rabelais' novel?

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

10. What about the episode of the Lord of Basche is carnivalesque?

(see the answer keys)

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