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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Whom did the Popular Front join with?
(a) Fascists and totalitarians.
(b) Communists and Socialists.
(c) Bureaucrats and Communists.
(d) Democrats and Socialist Democrats.

2. What writer coined the term conspicuous consumption?
(a) Veblen.
(b) Engels.
(c) Marx.
(d) Hegel.

3. What effect do flowers have on love, in "The Language of Flowers"?
(a) Sanctification.
(b) Praise.
(c) Sacrilege.
(d) Celebration.

4. In whose hands does Bataille describe conspicuous consumption as a tool?
(a) The middle class.
(b) The poor.
(c) The intelligentsia.
(d) The rich.

5. What does Bataille claim the world is in "The Solar Anus"?
(a) Comedy.
(b) Tragedy.
(c) Farce.
(d) Parody.

6. What film does Bataille cite in "The Eye"?
(a) The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.
(b) Andalusian Dog.
(c) That Obscure Object of Desire.
(d) L'Age d'Or.

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

8. Who contributed to "Documents"?
(a) Biologists.
(b) Literary critics.
(c) Rebel surrealists.
(d) Librarians.

9. How does Bataille describe his thinking in "Popular Front in the Street"?
(a) He said he could not escape from the logic of fascism.
(b) He said he worshiped the masses.
(c) He said he had a paradoxical fascist tendency.
(d) He said he had an indomitable democratic streak.

10. What feeling does Bataille exaggerate in "The Lugubrious Game"?
(a) Irreverence.
(b) Admiration.
(c) Mournfulness.
(d) Respect.

11. What does the mole stand for in "The 'Old Mole' and the Prefix Sur in the Words Surhomme [Superman] and Surrealist"?
(a) Surrealism.
(b) Proletarianism.
(c) Materialists.
(d) God.

12. Why was Bataille annoyed while riding his bicycle?
(a) The house was too small for his turns.
(b) The pavement was broken up by streetcar tracks.
(c) The sand was slushy with high tide.
(d) The schoolyard was fenced in.

13. Why was it a mistake for Bataille to use his intellectual violence on Breton?
(a) Breton might have promoted it.
(b) Bataille lost friends over the gratuitous attack.
(c) Breton's friends excommunicated Bataille from the surrealist circles.
(d) Breton ruined Bataille in revenge.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What strategy does Surrealism use for presenting images?

2. Who arranged Bataille's psychoanalytic cure?

3. What did Bataille describe in "The Lugubrious Game"?

4. How did Bataille rebel against his father?

5. How would you describe the images Bataille presents?

(see the answer keys)

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