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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What principles does Bataille say men associate with the feet in "The Big Toe"?
(a) Subversion and power.
(b) Labor and evil.
(c) Powerlessness and subservience.
(d) Evil and dark.

2. How did Bataille rebel against his father?
(a) By taking lovers.
(b) By becoming a Protestant.
(c) By quitting school.
(d) By running away from home.

3. What does Bataille say surrealism is, in "The 'Old Mole' and the Prefix Sur in the Words Surhomme [Superman] and Surrealist"?
(a) A surplus of idealism.
(b) A childhood sickness of materialism.
(c) A form of world-weariness.
(d) A reaction against childhood idealism.

4. Why did Bataille attack Nietzsche?
(a) For megalomania and failure of ideas.
(b) For admiring Emerson.
(c) For going insane.
(d) For failing to embrace the decomposition of culture.

5. What did Bataille write while he was working?
(a) Art criticism.
(b) Articles on philosophy.
(c) Book reviews.
(d) A medieval romance.

Short Answer Questions

1. What principles does Bataille say men associate with height in "The Big Toe"?

2. What does Bataille say conspicuous consumption was used for?

3. How does surrealism rebel at first, in "The 'Old Mole' and the Prefix Sur in the Words Surhomme [Superman] and Surrealist"?

4. What do flowers witness, in "The Language of Flowers"?

5. Where did Bataille work until 1942?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the value of Gnosticism in "Base Materialism and Gnosticism"

2. Describe the importance of myth in Bataille's writing and thinking.

3. What was Bataille's objection to Nietzsche?

4. Describe Bataille's schooling.

5. Describe Bataille's birth and family origins.

6. Describe Bataille's experience with psychoanalysis.

7. What is expressed in the language of flowers in "The Language of Flowers"?

8. How was Bataille's first book received?

9. How does self-mutilation in "Sacrificial Mutilation and the Severed Ear of Vincent Van Gogh" relate to Bataille's description of body parts in other essays.

10. What is the value of intellectual violence in Bataille's work?

(see the answer keys)

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