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 does Bataille say is the only virtue for fascists?

2. With whose picture does Bataille say Nietzsche's picture was paired?

3. What was Nietzsche's life dominated by, in Bataille's account?

4. What does Bataille describe as the only truly liberating act?

5. What does Bataille say about the knife whose handle and blade are changed indefinitely?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10. What is fascism's relationship with homo- and heterogeneity?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

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.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 695 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample