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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 wine and oil symbolize in Rabelais' novel?
(a) Sickness and hangovers versus a useful cooking ingredient.
(b) Hard harvest work in the vineyards and olive groves.
(c) Since both are flammable, they symbolize hellfire.
(d) Free, festive speech versus religious piety and seriousness.

2. After Rabelais' time, what happens to the "body" as a general social idea?
(a) The body expands to include the universal consciousness.
(b) The body gets restricted and individualized.
(c) The body appears to reduce in size and strength.
(d) The body is exalted for its natural functions only.

3. What in Rabelais' novel is a travesty of Gospel miracles?
(a) Gargantua's glimpse into heaven and dialogue with God.
(b) Panurge's seduction of a local knight's wife.
(c) Epistemon's resurrection and visions of the underworld.
(d) Friar John's defense of the abbey vineyards and beating of thousands.

4. Why was gaming very important in the Renaissance?
(a) Games represented another form of understanding the cycle of life.
(b) Games defined the distinction between social classes.
(c) Gaming reinforced the "official" ways of thinking.
(d) Gaming was deemed sinful and was forbidden by the Church.

5. Bakhtin defines Rabelais' giants as:
(a) Grotesque figures.
(b) Subhuman creatures.
(c) Debased clowns.
(d) Divine images.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. How does Bakhtin define the episode involving Villon and Tappecoue?

3. Bakhtin asserts that Rabelais' language, and the language of Renaissance France, was above all:

4. In Rabelais' novel, the words "to die" are closely associated with:

5. At the beginning of Chapter 6, Bakhtin argues that Rabelais' entire novel exhibits a clear, general __________ thematic trend.

Short Essay Questions

1. Discuss the significance of Gargantua's birth.

2. What was "prandial libertinism"?

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

4. Why does the logic of the grotesque ignore the closed surfaces of the body?

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 significant about the language in which Rabelais writes and the sources of many of his words?

7. What is the nature of the carnivalesque crowd in Rabelais' novel?

8. Briefly describe the two opposing lines of thought in the "querelle des femmes."

9. How does Rabelais construct the episode of Epistemon's resurrection and of his visions in the underworld?

10. How is "folly" ambivalent?

(see the answer keys)

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