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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. When did Bataille and his mother abandon his father?

2. What interrupts the road in "[Dream]"?

3. What feeling does Bataille exaggerate in "The Lugubrious Game"?

4. Where was Bataille born?

5. How does dialectic operate in "Notion of Expenditure"?

Short Essay Questions

1. How would you characterize Bataille's thoughts on society and economy?

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

3. Describe Bataille's schooling.

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

5. What type of essay is "Formless"?

6. What examples does Bataille cite to illustrate the horror of the eye's vulnerability?

7. Describe Bataille's birth and family origins.

8. What is Bataille's relationship with Hegel?

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

10. How does Bataille describe his role in "The Jesuve"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Bataille aligned himself with Catholicism before he broke with it as a young man--but what religion can we interpolate from Bataille's writing? Analyze his writings and describe the religion or lack of religion in Bataille's writing.

Essay Topic 2

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.

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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