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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. A famous campaign for Benetton used which of the following images in its advertising?
(a) A wounded German soldier.
(b) A concentration camp uniform.
(c) A dead Croatian soldier's bloody shirt.
(d) The barbed wire from Warsaw.

2. 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) Peace.
(b) Fear.
(c) Uncertainty.
(d) War.

3. Which of the following does Sontag suggest is an ethical act?
(a) Mourning.
(b) Remembering.
(c) Loving.
(d) Fighting.

4. Sontag suggests that photographs do NOT ask which of the following tasks of the viewers?
(a) To put an end to human cruelty.
(b) To retain specific knowledge about each human atrocity.
(c) To evaluate the morality of the situation depicted in the image.
(d) To work toward peace.

5. Sontag claims that sentimentality is often accompanied by which of the following?
(a) A maudlin reaction to stories of war.
(b) A tendency toward hypocrisy.
(c) A fervid religious commitment.
(d) A proclivity for brutality.

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. How many soldiers did Wall's photograph depict?

3. _______ is a modern development in camera use.

4. 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?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. In her discussion of the emotional impact of artistic renderings of suffering, Sontag referrs to Kabuki or Bunraku plays. What are these plays? Why does Sontag include this example?

3. 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?

4. 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.

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

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

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

10. Why did the people of Sarajevo object to having scenes of their war represented alongside scenes of the conflict in Somalia?

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