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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Bataille describe the Mithraic cult ritual of the sun in "Rotten Sun"?
(a) A priest stares into the sun to have a vision.
(b) A worshiper puts out a priest's eye.
(c) A priest cuts a victim's throat on an altar.
(d) A priest spatters a bull's blood on worshipers underneath.

2. What does Bataille say his father looked like in "[Dream]"?
(a) A house.
(b) A toad.
(c) A vulture.
(d) A star.

3. How does Bataille describe the mandrake root?
(a) Noisy.
(b) Human.
(c) Holy.
(d) Obscene.

4. What paradoxical action does Bataille describe in "Materialism"?
(a) The attempt to free the eye from aesthetics.
(b) The attempt to translate sex into language.
(c) The attempt to rid one's thoughts of spiritualism.
(d) The desire to stop using language for natural functions.

5. What does Bataille say conspicuous consumption was used for?
(a) Attacking the inequalities in the economy.
(b) Affirming the position of the rich.
(c) Destroying the foundation of wealth.
(d) Devaluing the trappings of wealth.

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

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

8. Where does Bataille recall riding his bicycle in Reims, in "[Dream]"?
(a) In the schoolyard.
(b) In his house.
(c) Through the streets.
(d) On the beach.

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

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

11. What flower is Marquis de Sade plucking petals off, at the end of "The Language of Flowers"?
(a) A carnation.
(b) A daisy.
(c) A lily.
(d) A rose.

12. What is the first stage of revolution, in "The Use Value of D. A. F. de Sade"?
(a) Portraying your revolution as a utopian project destined to succeed.
(b) Staking a claim to a new kind of authority.
(c) Expelling a group from power.
(d) Appropriating the language with which groups claim power.

13. How does Bataille describe his work?
(a) Hydrocephalic.
(b) Bicephalic.
(c) Monocephalic.
(d) Acephalic.

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

15. Who arranged Bataille's psychoanalytic cure?
(a) Dr. Rank.
(b) Dr. Adler.
(c) Dr. Jung.
(d) Dr. Dausse.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What film does Bataille cite in "The Eye"?

3. How did Bataille rebel against his father?

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

5. What does Bataille compare roots to, in "The Language of Flowers"?

(see the answer keys)

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