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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. Who arranged Bataille's psychoanalytic cure?

2. What was Bataille afraid of as a child?

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

4. What does Bataille say coitus is associated with, in "The Solar Anus"?

5. What does Bataille say conspicuous consumption was used for?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. What is Bataille's relationship with Hegel?

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

7. Describe Bataille's religion in childhood.

8. How was Bataille's first book received?

9. What was Bataille's objection to Nietzsche?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Assess Bataille's place in the rank of surrealists--In what ways is he a surrealist, and in what ways does his art exceed or fail to live up to surrealism?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

How has the importance of obscenity in literature changed since Bataille's time? Research the reactions to Bataille and to other writers who used disorienting or profane language during Bataille's time, and describe the changes that have taken place in readers' response to obscene or profane or sacrilegious material.

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This section contains 675 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample