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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. Which of the following is NOT one of the adjectives Sontag uses to describe the indescribable experience of war?

2. Which two things does Sontag say seem to go together?

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

4. Sontag cites William Hazlitt's claim that sympathy is no more a part of human nature than is which of the following?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Discuss the photograph that Georges Batailles kept on his desk. Why does Sontag discuss this particular photograph?

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

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

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

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

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

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

9. According to Sontag, designating a hell is not enough; yet, she suggests that this ability to name an atrocity does accomplish something. What does this accomplish? What is the point of naming an atrocity an atrocity?

10. 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.

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's book focused, in part, on the ethical or moral ramifications of witnessing war. In particular, she explored the ethics of war representations which capture "full frontal" images of the suffering of others, but almost always shy away from such graphic depictions of the suffering of people like the anticipated audience. Do you agree that this tendency exists in photojournalism? Why or why not?

If you think it does, is there an ethical dilemma inherent in this unbalanced depiction?

If you think it does not, discuss how and why the news media avoid this. Provide examples to counter those Sontag provides.

Essay Topic 3

Why might a group of people be more sensitive to images of its members in pain? For instance, why might Americans be more sensitive to images of American citizens in pain? Why, do you think, people are less sensitive to the suffering of "others" outside their own social, cultural, or national grouping?

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