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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 significance of the obelisk in "The Obelisk"?

2. What was Mussolini's relationship with Nietzsche?

3. What type of men's 'being' does Bataille compare in "The Labyrinth"?

4. What was Nietzsche's relationship with fascism, in Bataille's account?

5. What does Bataille say is the only religion for fascists?

Short Essay Questions

1. When does Bataille date the origin of the Popular Front to?

2. How does Bataille portray Engels' interpretation of Hegel's philosophy in "The Critique of the Foundations of the Hegelian Dialectic"?

3. How did Nietzsche respond to the decay of his culture, according to Bataille's essay "Nietzschean Chronicle"?

4. How does Bataille reconcile the opposition between self and world in "Sacrifices"?

5. Briefly describe the theory of conspicuous consumption.

6. What pattern for self-discovery does Bataille offer in "The Sacred"?

7. How does Bataille describe the individual in "The College of Sociology"?

8. What does contemporary society offer men in "The Sacred Conspiracy", and what does man demand for himself?

9. How does Andre Masson create the tone of the drawings in the book for which Bataille wrote a preface?

10. What does Bataille say is the only true liberating act, in "Propositions"?

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

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

Bataille valued revolutionary concepts from Marx and Hegel, but when the National Socialists came to power in Germany, he organized the Popular Front to oppose it. Characterize Bataille's desire for revolution, in art, in culture, and in European politics.

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This section contains 688 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample