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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does surrealism rebel at first, in "The 'Old Mole' and the Prefix Sur in the Words Surhomme [Superman] and Surrealist"?
(a) With all-out deformation of images.
(b) With all the proletarians.
(c) With subtle disorientation of meaning.
(d) Without the lower classes.

2. What relationship do the writings in Section II have to the writings in Section I?
(a) They were unrelated.
(b) They were implicit in them.
(c) They were unprecedented.
(d) They were logical extensions.

3. What two stances did Bataille combine?
(a) Merging and independence of men and women.
(b) Elevation and desecration of man.
(c) Sacrilege and holiness of religion.
(d) Fulfillment and hollowing of man.

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

5. Who introduced Bataille to surrealism?
(a) Michael Leiris.
(b) Marcel Duchamp.
(c) Joan Miro.
(d) Andre Breton.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Bataille describe the Mithraic cult ritual of the sun in "Rotten Sun"?

2. What effect do flowers have on love, in "The Language of Flowers"?

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

4. What did Bataille say about his book "W.C."?

5. Whom does Bataille refer to as untouchables in "Psychological Structure of Fascism"?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the paradox at the heart of "Materialism".

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

3. What was Bataille's involvement with "Acephale"?

4. What does Bataille say about 'freaks' in "The Deviations of Nature"?

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

6. Describe Bataille's schooling.

7. 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.

8. How does the mouth in "Mouth" compare with the eyeball in ''The Eye'?

9. Explain the title of the essay "The Use Value of D. A. F. de Sade".

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

(see the answer keys)

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