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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 are flowers not matched by, in "The Language of Flowers"?
(a) The corrupt hands that pick them.
(b) A show of human love.
(c) The work of bees.
(d) The purity of the sunshine.

2. How do the rats appear in "[Dream]"?
(a) Scratching in the walls.
(b) Hanging by their tails.
(c) Swimming in the bilge.
(d) Crawling in ditches.

3. What strategy does Surrealism use for presenting images?
(a) Layers of each image are stripped away until the essential truth is apparent.
(b) Opposite images are contrasted.
(c) The images are distorted beyond recognition.
(d) Images are piled on, one after another.

4. What critique does Bataille make in "The Critique of the Foundations of Hegelian Dialectic"?
(a) He criticizes the Oversoul as a childish fantasy.
(b) He mocks Marx and Engels for their idealism.
(c) He demonstrated why dialectical materialism is inevitable.
(d) He frees dialectical negation from Engels' mechanical abstraction.

5. How does Bataille describe his memory of his father pulling down his pants in "[Dream]"?
(a) Humiliating and painful.
(b) Terrible and magnificent.
(c) Catastrophic.
(d) Unimportant.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was Breton's response to Bataille?

2. What does Bataille say the eye causes?

3. When was "Acephale" published?

4. What does the title of "The Solar Anus" refer to?

5. What did Breton call Bataille?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain the title of the essay "The Use Value of D. A. F. de Sade".

2. What are the terrifying images in "[Dream]"?

3. Describe the importance of the 'cephalus' in Bataille's thinking.

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

5. Describe Bataille's religion in childhood.

6. Describe Bataille's schooling.

7. What claim did Bataille make in "The Lugubrious Game"?

8. How would you characterize Bataille's thoughts on society and economy?

9. What distinguished the big toe in "The Big Toe"?

10. What is Bataille's relationship with Hegel?

(see the answer keys)

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