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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. Sebastiao Salgado's work called "Migrations: Humanity in Transition" was often criticized as being:
(a) "Exploitative."
(b) "Melodramatic."
(c) "Generalizing."
(d) "Cinematic."

2. _______ is a classic use for the camera.
(a) Complicating.
(b) Beautifying.
(c) Simplifying.
(d) Uglifying.

3. Sontag insists that images may be ineffective; however, they do serve one basic and significant function. What is that function?
(a) Images provide representation for the victims, no matter how flawed.
(b) Images inoculate us to the effects of atrocity.
(c) Images remind us that humans are capable of causing great pain.
(d) Images provide moral education.

4. How many soldiers did Wall's photograph depict?
(a) Five.
(b) Thirteen.
(c) Three.
(d) Twelve.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Andy Warhol silk screened which of the following images of war as his only direct statement about the atrocity of war?

2. According to Sontag, if one feels sympathy for the victims of suffering, it helps ensure that one cannot be ___________.

3. Georges Bataille, famous for his studies of the erotic, kept which of the following images on his desk?

4. For Sontag, the impression that there are more news of atrocity is probably which of the following?

5. When Baudelaire expressed his concerns about the effects of the newspaper in 1860, which of the following was true?

Short Essay Questions

1. Sontag suggests that there is a rise of sadism in contemporary culture. Discuss this assertion using specific examples.

2. Sontag proposes that perhaps we place too much value on memory. What does she mean? Why does she posit this?

3. What is unusual about Wall's "Dead Troops Talk (A Vision After an Ambush of a Red Army Patrol near Moqor, Afghanistan, Winter 1986)?" Discuss two aspects of the work that separate it from others like it.

4. Sontag claims that a book is still the best medium for circulating images of atrocity. Name the three reasons she provides.

5. Sontag suggests that Wall's work affirms the normalcy of war. How so?

6. How does our contemporary view of suffering differ from earlier, more traditional Western views?

7. 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?

8. Sontag discusses Sebastiao Salgado's series entitled "Migrations: Humanity in Transition" and points out one very problematic effect of the series. Discuss this effect.

9. Sontag discusses two widespread ideas about the influence of photography. What is the first idea? Discuss it including one example.

10. Ultimately, Sontag notes that to discuss the desensitization of all television viewers is a provincial move, at best. Why does she argue this?

(see the answer keys)

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