View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What claim does Bataille make in "The Obelisk"?

2. When does being become undefined, according to Bataille?

3. What does Bataille say democracy is based on?

4. What does Bataille say Nietzsche questions?

5. What creatures' 'being' does Bataille compare in "The Labyrinth"?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Fascists define God, in Bataille's account in "Propositions"?

2. What will cause the death and resurrection of God, in Bataille's account in "Propositions"?

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

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

5. How does Alfred Rosenberg clarify the issue of Nietzsche's relationship with the Fascists?

6. What flaw does Bataille identify in dialectic philosophy in "The Critique of the Foundations of the Hegelian Dialectic"?

7. How does a man find himself in "The Labyrinth"?

8. What aspect of Nietzsche's philosophy did the Fascists appropriate, in Bataille's account in "Nietzsche and the Fascists"?

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

10. What does Bataille see as the value of Christianity of in "The Notion of Expenditure"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

Bataille is often revolutionary in his claims and expressions. What would a Bataille revolution look like? Would there be leaders, or would it be anarchy? Based on the text, speculate on the outcome of a revolution based on Bataille's work.

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 726 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample