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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) "Melodramatic."
(b) "Generalizing."
(c) "Exploitative."
(d) "Cinematic."

2. Sontag claims that no one has a right to which of the following?
(a) Happiness.
(b) Bliss.
(c) Ignorance.
(d) Sympathy.

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

4. Sontag suggests that, for the most part, photographs received more serious attention when placed in which of the following scenarios?
(a) Galleries.
(b) Books.
(c) Newspapers.
(d) Museums.

5. Sontag claims that some photographs which are "repulsive" can also ________.
(a) Silence.
(b) Shock.
(c) Allure.
(d) Impress.

Short Answer Questions

1. _______ is a classic use for the camera.

2. Which of the following phrases does Sontag use to refer to items which allow us to remember or think on death?

3. Neither compassion nor moral indignation would be enough to do which of the following?

4. Underneath feelings of apathy, Sontag contends are which of the following feelings?

5. 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?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9. 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?

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

(see the answer keys)

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