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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. The core images of the prologue of _Gargantua_ are:

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

3. Medieval parodies were:

4. What is "man's second nature," according to Renaissance Christian doctrine?

5. How does Rabelais accomplish the grotesque degradation of his target in the prologue to the Third Book?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the Renaissance student writings.

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

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

4. What are the "cris de Paris," or "street cries"?

5. Why does the speaker of the prologue of the Third Book invite only good men to drink?

6. What do Bakhtin's examples of Rabelais' tales of extraordinary urination have in common?

7. How does the marketplace become an indicator of folk culture in general?

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

9. What is the underlying nature of all of Rabelais' images?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain how laughter permeates every aspect of Renaissance folk culture, as Bakhtin argues it does. Cite specific examples from the text regarding the carnivalesque, the grotesque, official/unofficial modes of speech, and the ambivalence of certain forms and causes of laughter. Do these portrayals point to a greater "truth," as Bakhtin would say?

Essay Topic 2

What connections do Bakhtin and the authors of the Foreword and the Prologue draw between Bakhtin and Rabelais? How were their lives and times similar? What common themes are evident in their writing? In which important ways do they differ?

Essay Topic 3

What roles do games play in Rabelais' novel and in the Renaissance? Discuss how games and gaming fulfill an "unofficial" social role as opposed to an "official" one. What images, traditions, and symbols does Bakhtin associate them with? How are games representative of folk culture? How did games and gaming change after the Renaissance?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 856 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample