Historical Contacts: Sontag’s Sources
This handout investigates the historical context of Sontag’s argument for an “ecology of images” by exploring her sources: Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and Balzac’s theories of photography.
PHOTOGRAPHY LESSON 1: HANDOUT 3
1 class period (45-60 min)
- Art and Culture
Medium > Visual Arts
Subject Matter > Art History
Subject Matter > Philosophy
- History and Social Studies
Themes > Culture
World > The Modern World
- Literature and Language Arts
Place > Ancient World
Place > Modern World
- Analysis
- Compare and contrast
- Critical thinking
- Cultural analysis
- Discussion
- Evaluating arguments
- Historical analysis
- Interpretation
- Literary analysis
- Media analysis
- Making inferences and drawing conclusions
- Summarizing
- Synthesis
- Textual analysis
- Using primary sources
- Visual analysis
- ELA Reading: 1-4, 7, 10
- ELA Speaking & Listening: 1-2
- HSS Reading: 1-2, 4, 6-9
OR complete the lesson now with one of our Student Activity Options
- Assign the full text of “The Allegory of the Cave” from Plato’s Republic in advance, in place of handout excerpt.
- Reflection and concluding questions may also be assigned as short essays or response papers.