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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 claim does Bataille make in "The Obelisk"?
(a) That nationalism is never carved in stone.
(b) That fascism is centered on the monuments it builds to itself.
(c) That the past always has to be imported from elsewhere.
(d) That there is no mystery in the world of spirit.

2. What does Bataille say about meaning in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"?
(a) Things can only have meaning when they are fictitious.
(b) Things cannot have meaning unless they are historical realities.
(c) Things can only have meaning if they motivate actions.
(d) Things can only have meaning if there is a consensus about them.

3. What does the homogeneous part of society purchase?
(a) Unions.
(b) Capital.
(c) Production.
(d) Workers.

4. What does Bataille say money measures, in "Psychological Structure of Fascism"?
(a) Work.
(b) Status.
(c) Power.
(d) Money.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. When does an obelisk cease to be meaningful?

2. From what does Bataille say Alfred Baumler distilled a doctrine of the people's will to power?

3. Which of the following does Bataille NOT use as an example of unproductive expenditure without value beyond itself?

4. What happens when political action leads to nothing, in "The Sacred Conspiracy"?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How did Nietzsche respond to the decay of his culture, according to Bataille's essay "Nietzschean Chronicle"?

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

4. What is the difference between homogeneous and heterogeneous culture as Bataille defines them in "Psychological Structure of Fascism"?

5. Judging by "The Critique of the Foundations of the Hegelian Dialectic" and his other essays, what does Bataille see as the value of dialectics?

6. What does Bataille see as the value of Christianity of in "The Notion of Expenditure"?

7. What aspect of Nietzsche's philosophy did the Fascists appropriate, in Bataille's account in "Nietzsche and the Fascists"?

8. How do Fascists define God, in Bataille's account in "Propositions"?

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

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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