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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. Carnival allowed:

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

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

4. In the seventeenth century, the decline of laughter as a primary force in folk culture resulted from:

5. What are examples of carnivalesque victims?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. What does the prologue of _Pantagruel_ parody?

5. Why do modern readers find it difficult to read Rabelais' novel?

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

7. In general, what happened to the use of humor in literature after Rabelais' time?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

What is significant about the marketplace in the Renaissance? What is its relation to folk culture? How are social relationships conducted in the environment of the marketplace? How are the "street cries" significant aspects of folk culture? What other "unofficial" elements of communication, social commentary, and social interaction are especially prevalent in the marketplace? Are there any carnivalesque elements of the marketplace?

Essay Topic 3

Compare and contrast the Medieval and Renaissance views of the world, including the individual, social, and cosmic aspects of the world. What spurred the change from the Medieval to the Renaissance way of thinking? How is this change, and the social, political, and religious controversies or struggles that accompanied it, evident in Rabelais' novel?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 878 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample