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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Sontag suggests that it is still possible to "feel the pulse of Christian iconography" in much war photography. Which famous work of art does she suggest can be seen in W. Eugene Smith's photograph of the woman in Minamata cradling her child?
(a) The Last Supper.
(b) The Passion of Christ.
(c) Descent from the Cross.
(d) The Pieta.

2. Which of the following phrases does Sontag use to refer to items which allow us to remember or think on death?
(a) Memorabilia.
(b) Photography.
(c) Memento mori.
(d) Emblems of suffering.

3. What does Sontag claim as our only connection with the dead?
(a) Graves.
(b) Images.
(c) Memory.
(d) Love.

4. Sontag claims that compassion requires which of the following in order to remain?
(a) Evidence.
(b) Belief.
(c) Reason.
(d) Action.

5. Although images were more prevalent, which of the following was NOT also true?
(a) The human capacity to absorb the images of suffering increased.
(b) People's understanding of atrocity increased.
(c) People's reactions to the images were greater.
(d) Humanity became oversensitive to images of suffering.

6. "Without Sanctuary" was a book of photographs taken of which of the following atrocities?
(a) The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.
(b) Lynchings of black Americans in the 1930s.
(c) The Rwanda atrocities.
(d) Japanese internment in the U.S.

7. Sontag presents her own objection to Salgado's "Migrations." Why does Sontag criticize Salgado's work?
(a) He reprinted images of refugees without their consent, display a disregard for their rights.
(b) He staged many of the photographs to create more dramatic depictions of human agony.
(c) He profited greatly from the exhibition of the photographs while the subjects received nothing.
(d) He generalized different social and political situations under the anonymous umbrella of suffering.

8. Sontag argues that journalists who photograph war are often received with resistance. She suggests that the desire to capture images of suffering is often described in which of the following ways?
(a) Vulgar and low.
(b) Cruel and torturous.
(c) Cruel and unusual.
(d) Exploitative and perverse.

9. Sontag cites the Japanese narrative "Chushingura" in which the protagonist stops to appreciate the beauty of cherry blossoms one last time before committing ritual suicide as an example of which kind of shocking art?
(a) The type which is only relative to a particular culture, and thus has little effect on outsiders.
(b) The type which is perennially performed, but which achieves less of a reaction with each performance.
(c) The type which is often underestimated for its emotional impact.
(d) The type which, through the narrative form of pathos, continually induces emotional reactions.

10. Which of the following is NOT one of the adjectives Sontag uses to describe the indescribable experience of war?
(a) Terrifying.
(b) Exhilerating.
(c) Normal.
(d) Dreadful.

11. Sontag begins Chapter 9 with which of the following assertions?
(a) Anti-war imagery is futile.
(b) Images of war do little to help us understand the circumstances of war.
(c) Designating an atrocity merely labels the victims..
(d) Merely naming an atrocity does nothing to remedy the situation or save its victims.

12. Sontag argues that there are two extreme positions on a spectrum of war experience which create the same idea that images of war are no longer emotionally-jarring for an audience? Which two positions are they?
(a) Victims and perpetrators of atrocity.
(b) Soldiers and civilians of war-torn regions.
(c) Scholars and politicians.
(d) Unexperienced cynics and the war-weary.

13. Sontag corrects her earlier argument by claiming that which of the following is eroded by modern media saturation?
(a) Sense of urgency.
(b) Human decency.
(c) Human empathy.
(d) Sense of reality.

14. Sontag claims that Bataille could see extreme pain as a form of __________.
(a) Deification.
(b) Sadomasochism.
(c) Erotic pleasure.
(d) Transfiguration.

15. Which two things does Sontag say seem to go together?
(a) Heartlessness and amnesia.
(b) Amnesia and trauma.
(c) Trauma and memory.
(d) Death and heartlessness.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following thinkers argued that people take "no small" delight in witnessing the suffering of others?

2. Sontag suggests that to make peace is to do which of the following?

3. Sontag claims that sentimentality is often accompanied by which of the following?

4. "Dead Troops Talk (A Vision After an Ambush of a Red Army Patrol near Moqor, Afghanistan, Winter 1986" was a photograph taken by which of the following types of photographer?

5. Sebastiao Salgado's work called "Migrations: Humanity in Transition" was often criticized as being:

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