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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. Recounting a conversation with a Sarajevan woman, Sontag claims that when people are safe, they will feel which of the following toward atrocities committed abroad?
(a) Delight.
(b) Arousal.
(c) Indifference.
(d) Outrage.

2. Sontag suggests that to make peace is to do which of the following?
(a) Remember.
(b) Forget.
(c) Forgive.
(d) Understand.

3. In discussing images that remind us of death, Sontag references a particular 1943 photograph. What is the subject of this photograph?
(a) The mushroom clouds.
(b) A little boy in the Warsaw Ghetto.
(c) The collapsed Twin Towers.
(d) The empty trenches.

4. It was generally thought that public awareness was largely guided by which of the following?
(a) Government propaganda.
(b) Media coverage.
(c) Book industry.
(d) Educational programming.

5. Which Dreiser novel does Sontag reference in the final chapter?
(a) "Sister of War."
(b) "Death of a Salesman."
(c) "An American Tragedy."
(d) "The Crucible."

Short Answer Questions

1. Sontag claims that shock used for rhetorical purposes can become _________.

2. Sontag corrects her earlier argument by claiming that which of the following is eroded by modern media saturation?

3. Which sense did the ancient Greeks consider superior?

4. _______ is a modern development in camera use.

5. Sontag claims that Bataille could see extreme pain as a form of __________.

Short Essay Questions

1. According to Sontag, how does Goya's "The Disasters of War" differ from most depictions of mutilated and tortured bodies?

2. Why did the people of Sarajevo object to having scenes of their war represented alongside scenes of the conflict in Somalia?

3. According to Sontag, why is there no museum dedicated to the victims of the slave trade?

4. Describe the scene which Sontag refers to as the first description of bodies in anguish and identify the source of this description.

5. How does Sontag refute claims that photography is somehow inherently more voyeuristic than other forms of observation?

6. Why is a museum, in Sontag's opinion, an inappropriate place to display atrocity photographs?

7. Sontag discusses the emergence of apathy and cynicism toward war. According to her discussion, what feeling underlies cynicism about war and atrocity? What is the purpose of this cynicism?

8. Sontag claims that there is a difference between finding beauty in artistic representations of war and finding beauty in photographs of war. What is the difference?

9. Why does Sontag say that "it is not necessarily better to be moved?" Discuss the negative aspects of sentimentality.

10. Discuss Sontag's assertion that some images serve as memento mori. What does she mean? How do they serve this purpose?

(see the answer keys)

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