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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 discusses another common belief regarding media coverage of an event, and suggested that it may seem to contradict the first common belief she addresses. What is this second idea?

2. Diorama, tableaux and wax exhibits served which of the following purposes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?

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

4. "Dead Troops Talk (A Vision After an Ambush of a Red Army Patrol near Moqor, Afghanistan, Winter 1986" was a photograph taken by which of the following types of photographer?

5. Which of the following thinkers argued that people take "no small" delight in witnessing the suffering of others?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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.

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

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

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

6. Why does Sontag refer to the argument that image-glut desensitizes us to images of suffering as "conservative"?

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

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

9. 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?

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Are images sufficient to provoke anti-war sentiment? Sontag ultimately concluded that photographs alone could not achieve this end. Do you agree or disagree? Are some images striking, shocking, horrifying, or compelling enough to effect change? Do some of Sontag's examples, such as the coverage of the Vietnam War, work for or against her assertion?

Essay Topic 2

Sontag commented extensively on the ways in which war photography and atrocity centered journalism has evolved from the inception of photojournalism. Discuss your views on the evolution of war photography. Do you agree with Sontag's assertions? Why or why not? Draw on specific historical and contemporary examples to support your analysis.

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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