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

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

3. Which of the following poets expressed concerns about the effect of national-scale events on human sensibility in 1800?

4. At the time Sontag wrote the book, many felt what which of the following made atrocity photographs immoral?

5. A famous campaign for Benetton used which of the following images in its advertising?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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?

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

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

6. 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.

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

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

9. Sontag discusses two widespread ideas about the influence of photography. Sontag notes that the second idea might seem to be the converse of the first. What is the second idea? Discuss the second idea using support from the book.

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sontag began her discussion with an analysis of Virginia Woolf's book, "Three Guineas." Woolf's analysis of war and gender was a significant source throughout Sontag's argument. Read Woolf's "Three Guineas" and discuss your reaction to Woolf's argument. Did you agree with Woolf or Sontag? Or, perhaps, both, in some way? How did your assessment of Woolf's argument differ from Sontag's? Did you agree with Sontag's assertion that Woolf's text is somewhat dated in its discussion of war photography?

Essay Topic 2

Sontag discussed image-glut and image-flow extensively in this essay. Do you agree with her assertions that the modern world contains a plethora of disturbing or horrific images? Evaluate her argument regarding the effects of image-glut and propose your own. How does the influx of war photographs affect the viewer? Are viewers more prone to apathy because of the quantity of images? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

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.

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