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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. What common fifteenth- and sixteenth-century literary device does Bakhtin identify in the Prologue to the Third Book?

2. According to Bakhtin, what is the function of art?

3. To what does Bakhtin compare the various cries of Paris?

4. The verbal interactions between the Renaissance marketplace hawker and the crowd were above all:

5. Bakhtin thinks that life is:

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What was Rabelais' relationship with the fairs based upon?

3. Describe the Catchpoles and what they symbolize.

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

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

6. What is Bakhtin's general idea about the purpose of art?

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

8. Describe Friar John.

9. How does Bakhtin get around the prohibition of certain kinds of satire and irony in his own time?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is a "blazon"? How are blazons part of the carnivalesque and grotesque traditions of folk humor? What sorts of people or things were turned into blazons, and why? How is the theme of duality related to the blazon? How does Rabelais employ blazons in his novel?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the relationship between praise and abuse. Use examples of this theme from what Bakhtin identifies as billingsgate and marketplace language and from popular-festive forms in Chapters 2 and 3. How were praise and abuse part of the tradition of "unofficial" language, and specifically how did they oppose "official" language? Are there elements of the grotesque in praise and abuse?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the theme of debasement in Medieval and Renaissance folk culture. How was debasement associated with the lower stratum of the body? Who or what were targets of debasement? How was debasement or degradation accomplished? How is humor associated with debasement? What is the ambivalent nature of debasement in folk culture?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 814 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample