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 was the purpose of the Popular Front, in Bataille's account?

2. What does Bataille's 'me in the void' realize in "Sacrifices"?

3. What does Baumler call revolution?

4. What does the cross demand, at the end of "Sacrifices"?

5. What happens when political action leads to nothing, in "The Sacred Conspiracy"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the essence of Bataille's essay "The Practice of Joy before Death"?

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

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

4. What is the importance of the obelisk in "The Obelisk"?

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

6. How does the artist give meaning in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"?

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

8. What is Bataille's interpretation of Veblen's theory of conspicuous consumption?

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

10. What is Bataille's theme in "The Labyrinth"?

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

How did the Popular Front fulfill Bataille's ideal of heterogeneity? Analyze his description of the organization in relation with his other essays about revolution and order.

Essay Topic 3

Describe Bataille's development as a person and as a writer over the course of his career. How did Bataille learn and grow? What were the primary questions or conflicts he grew by resolving?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 735 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample