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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. What does Bataille say the theory of conspicuous consumption is used for?
(a) Keeping the poor weak.
(b) Preserving segregation between rich and poor.
(c) Melting different cultures together in America.
(d) Giving the poor opportunities.

2. Whom does Bataille say can never touch the reality of earth?
(a) Capitalists.
(b) Those who exploit the earth for profit.
(c) Those who do not understand it.
(d) Fascists.

3. What was the purpose of the Popular Front, in Bataille's account?
(a) To oppose immigrants in France.
(b) To overthrow the Vichy government.
(c) To oppose Hitler.
(d) To oppose fascism in France.

4. From what does Bataille say Alfred Baumler distilled a doctrine of the people's will to power?
(a) Nietzschean contradiction.
(b) Nietzschean politics.
(c) Nietzschean metaphor.
(d) Nietzschean religion.

5. Which of the following does Bataille NOT use as an example of unproductive expenditure without value beyond itself?
(a) Luxuries.
(b) Public gardens.
(c) War.
(d) Art.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Bataille say scientists said about the dialectic?

2. What tone did Andre Masson establish in his drawings?

3. What feeling does Bataille say grows in response to revolutionaries?

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

5. How did Andre Masson establish the tone of his book of drawings?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Bataille describe the individual in "The College of Sociology"?

2. How does a man find himself in "The Labyrinth"?

3. Briefly describe the theory of conspicuous consumption.

4. What flaw does Bataille identify in dialectic philosophy in "The Critique of the Foundations of the Hegelian Dialectic"?

5. What is fascism's relationship with homo- and heterogeneity?

6. How does the artist give meaning in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"?

7. What will cause the death and resurrection of God, in Bataille's account in "Propositions"?

8. When does Bataille date the origin of the Popular Front to?

9. What is the essence of Bataille's essay "The Practice of Joy before Death"?

10. How does Andre Masson create the tone of the drawings in the book for which Bataille wrote a preface?

(see the answer keys)

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