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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. Why did Bataille leave his job in 1942?

2. What did "Acephale" primarily consist of?

3. What two stances did Bataille combine?

4. What is the first stage of revolution, in "The Use Value of D. A. F. de Sade"?

5. What was Bataille afraid of as a child?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What experience does Bataille elevate in "Rotten Sun"?

3. Describe Bataille's experience with psychoanalysis.

4. What is the value of intellectual violence in Bataille's work?

5. 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.

6. What were Bataille's early publications?

7. How does the notion of parody apply to the sun in "The Solar Anus"?

8. How was Bataille's first book received?

9. What type of essay is "Formless"?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze Bataille's writing style to comment on his literary personality and temperament.

Essay Topic 2

Describe the importance of Nietzsche's ideas and writing in Bataille's work--what did Bataille say by referring to Nietzsche's work?

Essay Topic 3

Research Andre Breton's personality and his effect on surrealism, and assess the value of the proposition that Bataille was better off with Breton as an enemy than he would have been with him as a friend.

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