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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Sontag insists that images may be ineffective; however, they do serve one basic and significant function. What is that function?

2. Which of the following produced a documentary about a "deranged" Pacific war veteran who drives the streets of Tokyo speaking against Japanese war crimes?

3. Which of the following is an account of a man's last hours before his execution at the guillotine?

4. Sontag criticizes American portrayals of U.S. military strategy, saying that war museums do not emphasize which of the following?

5. _______ is a modern development in camera use.

Short Essay Questions

1. Sontag contrasts the perceived number of atrocities now with the number from years ago, and makes a specific claim about the rate of atrocity. Discuss this assertion.

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

3. Although there are more images broadcast, Sontag suggests that the human response to suffering is relatively unchanged. Discuss Sontag's views on our capacity for dealing with suffering.

4. Sontag asserts that many people become frustrated by their inability to act on the images of suffering they see in the media. What does this frustration often become?

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Although the public often reacts with disappointment or even outrage upon learning that a moving image has been staged, is there anything inherently less true about an image staged for a photograph than there is in a still life composed for a painting? Does a photograph need to capture spontaneous truth as it unfolds in order to have any validity. Provide support for your argument and discuss relevant examples.

Essay Topic 2

Sontag asserted that acknowledging the human capacity for unthinkable cruelty is a step toward intellectual and moral maturity. Do you agree? Why or why not? Further, why is intellectual or moral maturity a desirable outcome of war photography? How does this new-found maturity benefit the world? Is this perhaps vital to the production of a functional society? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Throughout Sontag's argument, gender norms and expectations emerge as contributing factors in the way individuals receive images. How does Sontag treat these gendered expectations? Do you agree with Sontag's assertions on this issue? Why or why not? Discuss the differences in the ways men and women receive photographs of war and atrocity as well as the way publishing companies think about their audiences in terms of gender.

(see the answer keys)

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