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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. What is the benefit Bataille sees to having more than one meaning in his work?

2. How does Bataille describe his thinking in "Popular Front in the Street"?

3. Who contributed to "Documents"?

4. What was the "Acephale" group's primary purpose?

5. What principles does Bataille say men associate with height in "The Big Toe"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Bataille's relationship with Hegel?

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

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

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

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. Describe the change in Bataille's early work to his more mature work and values.

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

8. How was Bataille's first book received?

9. Describe Bataille's involvement with the Popular Front.

10. What were Bataille's early publications?

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

Analyze Bataille's relationship with other authors or thinkers, and describe how Bataille navigates between keeping the writer's thoughts and rejecting them. He doesn't just throw them out, does he? How would you characterize his relationship with the work that precedes him? Use examples from the text to explain.

Essay Topic 3

What exactly is it that Bataille wants people to see about reality and human experience? Describe the value of pornographic or chaotic or revolutionary things in Bataille's work.

(see the answer keys)

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