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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was Bataille summing up in his "Propositions"?
(a) His thoughts on modern culture.
(b) His thoughts on sex and perversity in modern life.
(c) His thoughts on Nietzschean metaphysics.
(d) His thoughts on the death of God.

2. What was Nietzsche's relationship with fascism, in Bataille's account?
(a) He claimed to be a prophet of a culture of power.
(b) He was opposed to political parties.
(c) He was active in opposition to it.
(d) He was active in support of it.

3. What type of men's 'being' does Bataille compare in "The Labyrinth"?
(a) A worker and a sovereign.
(b) A man and a woman.
(c) A worker and a store-keeper.
(d) An important man and a wanderer.

4. What does Bataille say scientists said about the dialectic?
(a) It was incompatible with science.
(b) It was the one true science.
(c) It was a matter of faith.
(d) It was demonstrated in evolution.

5. What creatures' 'being' does Bataille compare in "The Labyrinth"?
(a) Dog and sponge.
(b) Bird and dog.
(c) Snake and sponge.
(d) Man and dog.

6. How is the question of 'what exists compared to what appears' resolved, in "Sacrifices"?
(a) By moving beyond questions of present and past.
(b) By unraveling the mystery of language.
(c) By answering what is required to exist for moral value.
(d) By accepting the duality of latent and manifest action.

7. What did professor Hartmann dispute about the treatment of the Marx/Hegel dialectic?
(a) He objects that it is based on pseudo-science.
(b) He objects that it is not a law of reality.
(c) He objects that it is only applicable in certain cases.
(d) He objects that it is not grounded in political science.

8. What was the essay "Sacrifices" used as?
(a) As a preface.
(b) A criticism.
(c) A personal essay.
(d) A review.

9. What was Mussolini's relationship with Nietzsche?
(a) He refuted his arguments.
(b) He did not cite his influence on fascism.
(c) He claimed him as an ancestor.
(d) He named him as one of his inspirations.

10. What does Bataille say is analogous to the maternal breast?
(a) Technology.
(b) Death.
(c) Society.
(d) Love.

11. What happens when political action leads to nothing, in "The Sacred Conspiracy"?
(a) The government will dissolve.
(b) New political parties will form.
(c) The people will revolt.
(d) Enthusiasm meets a void.

12. What movement does Bataille say in "The Sacred" was heir to Vincent Van Gogh and Rimbaud?
(a) Surrealism.
(b) Transcendentalism.
(c) Dadaism.
(d) Cubism.

13. What does Bataille say profit leads to, in "The Labyrinth"?
(a) Salvation.
(b) Purgatory.
(c) Illumination.
(d) Degradation.

14. With whose picture does Bataille say Nietzsche's picture was paired?
(a) Darwin's.
(b) Lou Andreas-Salomé's.
(c) Hegel's.
(d) Hitler's.

15. What does Bataille say would result from a difference of events in his experience?
(a) He would be at war with himself.
(b) He would have to confront his true self.
(c) He would reveal his alter-ego.
(d) He would be an other.

Short Answer Questions

1. When does an obelisk cease to be meaningful?

2. What does Bataille say Nietzschean pride comes from?

3. How did Bataille relate to Andre Masson's drawings?

4. How did Engels and Hartmann differ on the tenets of Hegel's "Philosophy of Nature"?

5. Where does fascism originate?

(see the answer keys)

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