1. How does the prologue of _Pantagruel_ demonstrate the connection between literature and the marketplace?
(a) It offers a pricey alternative to illiteracy.
(b) It exhorts its readers to record in writing their own experiences of fairs and of Carnival.
(c) It begins with a detailed description of the author's hometown marketplace.
(d) It simultaneously advertises itself and praises the public.

2. How are Bakhtin and Rabelais similar?
(a) They both write mostly novels.
(b) They both subvert the social prohibition on laughter, satire, and irony.
(c) They live in the same country.
(d) They both directly challenge the government by running for political office.

3. In the seventeenth century, the decline of laughter as a primary force in folk culture resulted from:
(a) The exhaustion of any new sources of humor.
(b) The need of the public for other forms of diversion.
(c) The declining number of Carnival performers.
(d) An increasingly "official" culture of rationalism.

4. According to Bakhtin's semiotic understanding, what irony is inherent within the creative power of language?
(a) No word can actually ever be defined.
(b) The individual expresses him- or herself only through the words of others.
(c) All languages are one.
(d) Language does not actually express anything.

5. How are abusive and praiseful words reflective of grotesque realism?
(a) The words are spoken in a language the listener cannot understand, so they sound like gibberish.
(b) The words combine two sides of the same form or feeling into an ambivalent but cohesive social structure.
(c) The words reflect incompatible sides of certain social classes of people.
(d) The words are carefully chosen by the speaker to disgust the listener.