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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which Virginia Woolf book does Sontag discuss in detail?
(a) Orlando.
(b) The Hours.
(c) Mrs. Dalloway.
(d) Three Guineas.

2. The protagonist of J'Accuse, the 1938 anti-war film, cries out which of the following in German and in English?
(a) "Your sacrifices were in vain!"
(b) "The face of war!"
(c) "War is ugly!"
(d) "The horror!"

3. "The Killing Fields" depicts which of the following?
(a) The atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge.
(b) The casualties of Bunker Hill.
(c) The dead and dying of the Korean War.
(d) The mass deaths during the Spanish Civil War.

4. Sontag discusses one year in European history in which the photograph was able to truly capture the nature of human atrocities. Which year was it?
(a) 1912.
(b) 1902.
(c) 1945.
(d) 1975.

5. Which was the first war to be covered by television cameras?
(a) The Korean War.
(b) Desert Storm.
(c) The Vietnam War.
(d) The War on Terror.

Short Answer Questions

1. Sontag discusses a famous series of photographs taken by Tyler Hicks, titled "A Nation Challenged." What does this series depict?

2. Sontag argues that the photograph, unlike the written word, is:

3. Audiences may question the veracity of photographs because:

4. Noting the long history of the "iconography of suffering," Sontag lists three types of art which depict incredible agony. Which of the following is NOT one of them?

5. A heated debate emerged when a weekly paper in Boston ran a video of which American journalist's execution in Pakistan?

Short Essay Questions

1. Sontag distinguished between "image makers" and "image takers". What is the difference between these two groups of artists? How are they perceived differently?

2. Sontag identified two types of censorship which affect war photography. Describe both types of censorship. Which is most influential?

3. Explain the connection Sontag made between religious narratives and iconography and the Western understanding of images of suffering. Discuss at least one example from the text.

4. According to Sontag, do people prefer artistic renderings or straight-forward representations of atrocities? Why?

5. Discuss the controversy surrounding the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl in Karachi in 2002. What was the main conflict?

6. Sontag compared the photograph to a maxim or a proverb. Explain this comparison. What does it tell us about the nature or impact of photographs?

7. Sontag asserted that "cameras have always kept company with death." What did she mean by this assertion?

8. Explain Sontag's objection to the idea that a news broadcasting program can "give you the world." Why did she argue that compressing world news into broadcasted programming is bad?

9. Discuss the significance of the Magnum Photo Agency, founded in Paris in 1947. What was the group initially founded to do? How did they influence the development of photojournalism?

10. What did Sontag mean when she claimed that the memory of war is mostly local? What does this mean for international news firms?

(see the answer keys)

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