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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 are the rats doing in "[Dream]"?

2. How does "The Language of Flowers" end?

3. Why was Bataille annoyed while riding his bicycle?

4. What does standing upright do for man in "The Big Toe"?

5. Where did Bataille work until 1942?

Short Essay Questions

1. What experience does Bataille elevate in "Rotten Sun"?

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

3. How does the notion of parody apply to the sun in "The Solar Anus"?

4. Describe Bataille's experience with psychoanalysis.

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

6. What were Bataille's early publications?

7. What was Bataille's relationship with Andrea Breton?

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

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

10. 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.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How has the importance of obscenity in literature changed since Bataille's time? Research the reactions to Bataille and to other writers who used disorienting or profane language during Bataille's time, and describe the changes that have taken place in readers' response to obscene or profane or sacrilegious material.

Essay Topic 2

Bataille valued revolutionary concepts from Marx and Hegel, but when the National Socialists came to power in Germany, he organized the Popular Front to oppose it. Characterize Bataille's desire for revolution, in art, in culture, and in European politics.

Essay Topic 3

Which does Bataille consider more horrifying, freaks, or violence to eyeballs? Describe what Bataille sees as horrific about these concepts and experiences.

(see the answer keys)

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