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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. How does Bakhtin interpret Rabelais' work as a response to the hardships of France in 1532?

2. To what are "swabs" most closely related?

3. How does Bakhtin define the combination of human and animal organs in Rabelais' novel?

4. Why did Hippocrates assert such an influence on Rabelais?

5. Gargamelle gives birth to Gargantua as a result of:

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Bakhtin mean when he writes that popular-festive carnivalesque performances have no "footlights"?

2. What is the significance of Friar John's description of the monastery belfry as "fecund"?

3. Which elements of Villon and Tappecoue's (Ticklepecker's) episode make it a "tragic farce"?

4. What is the connection between the banquet and speech?

5. What is the significance of "cuckoldry," and how is it portrayed?

6. How does Rabelais strengthen the exaggerated themes of his grotesque realism?

7. Why does Bakhtin choose to relate Goethe to Rabelais' work?

8. How does Rabelais use the element of popular speech known as "coq-à-l'âne"?

9. How is "folly" ambivalent?

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

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

Choose three main characters from Rabelais' novel and explain the meanings of their names (for example, Gargantua, Pantagruel, Panurge, King Anarchus, Friar John, Lord Basche, etc.) Discuss any connotations their names may have, any allusions to people, places, historical events, or mythology, and what their names represent in the context of carnivalesque folk culture.

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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