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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section I (1927-1930).

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What claim does Bataille discuss in "The Deviations of Nature"?
(a) That nothing is more horrifying than man.
(b) That nothing is more horrifying than snakes.
(c) That nothing is more horrifying that carnival freaks.
(d) That nothing is more horrifying than rats at carnivals.

2. What do flowers witness, in "The Language of Flowers"?
(a) The life and death of love.
(b) The architectural order of fields and forests.
(c) Nothing but a moment in the life of the plant.
(d) The reason for the plants' existence.

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

4. What does the other self-mutilator (besides Van Gogh) do in "Sacrificial Mutilation and the Severed Ear of Vincent Van Gogh"?
(a) Drink his own blood.
(b) Put out his eye.
(c) Cut off his hand.
(d) Bite off his finger.

5. How should materialism be disclaimed, in "Materialism"?
(a) By replacing idealism with matter.
(b) By superseding idealism with dialogue.
(c) By excluding all idealism.
(d) By including all idealism.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where did Bataille go to school?

2. In what piece of writing did Bataille record his childhood?

3. What writer coined the term conspicuous consumption?

4. What does Bataille say surrealism is, in "The 'Old Mole' and the Prefix Sur in the Words Surhomme [Superman] and Surrealist"?

5. What was the "Acephale" group's primary purpose?

(see the answer key)

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