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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. Sontag claims in Chapter 6 that, despite historical evidence to the contrary, we have come to see which of the following as the natural state of being?
(a) Fear.
(b) War.
(c) Peace.
(d) Uncertainty.

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

3. "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?
(a) A Canadian artist attempting to envision the horrors of a distant war.
(b) A civilian bystander with a disposable camera.
(c) A military photographer archiving the event for intelligence purposes.
(d) An embedded journalist.

4. For Sontag, the impression that there are more news of atrocity is probably which of the following?
(a) An accurate perception.
(b) A regrettable truth.
(c) An illusion.
(d) An obnoxious overstatement.

5. In order to take pleasure in suffering, Sontag argues that one must necessarily have which of the following?
(a) A sadistic streak characteristic of serial killers.
(b) Distance from the source of suffering.
(c) A sense of moral or intellectual superiority.
(d) Deep seated feelings of misanthropy.

Short Answer Questions

1. Sontag claims that no one has a right to which of the following?

2. Sontag cites one of her earlier books published in 1977. Which of the following is it?

3. 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?

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

5. 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?

Short Essay Questions

1. Discuss the significance of the photograph's intended purpose. If a photograph is intended to convey a message, but because of the context in which it is displayed does not, is the photograph still successful?

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

3. 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?

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

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

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

7. Sontag claims that there is historical evidence to suggest that, despite contemporary belief, war has always been the norm, and peace the exception to that norm. Discuss one of the examples Sontag provided.

8. 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.

9. What does Sontag mean when she said that photographs transform?

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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