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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did Leiris portray Bataille to Breton?

2. What kind of eye does Victor Hugo describe in a poem Bataille cites?

3. How does Bataille describe his father?

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

5. When did Bataille and his mother abandon his father?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is Bataille's relationship with Hegel?

3. What are the terrifying images in "[Dream]"?

4. Describe Bataille's experience with psychoanalysis.

5. What distinguished the big toe in "The Big Toe"?

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

7. Describe the importance of myth in Bataille's writing and thinking.

8. How was Bataille's first book received?

9. Describe Bataille's religion in childhood.

10. What was Bataille's objection to Nietzsche?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe Bataille's opposition to dialectics. Is he consistent with his own anti-dialectic stance in his writing? Identify the places where Bataille's writing is most successful in opposing dialectics.

Essay Topic 2

How did the Popular Front fulfill Bataille's ideal of heterogeneity? Analyze his description of the organization in relation with his other essays about revolution and order.

Essay Topic 3

In what ways is Bataille a sacrificial victim? Analyze his essays where sacrifices appear, in addition to the essays where he talks about his role as an author, and describe him as either the sacrificing priest or the sacrificial victim himself.

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