The Set-Up Assignment
On your course CD, open the JPEG file "Icarus" and take a look at the picture (see below). For now, just notice what draws your attention (and write a few sentences about why you think that's where your eye fell). For our purposes, we'll call this the "visual focal point" of the painting. Now, go back and perform a careful viewing of the painting (much the same way we have learned to perform analytical reading of a written text). Based on your close "reading" of this painting, what do you think the painter was trying to "say"? If you have difficulty with this, look in the painting for any details that seem important, startling or hard to explain. If you are still having trouble, consider the title of this painting: The Fall of Icarus. Do an Internet search for "Icarus." Based on what you have discovered, determine the main idea presented by Pieter Bruegel's painting The Fall of Icarus.

Day Two (in class or out)
We will begin class with a reading of two poems written about The Fall of Icarus: "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus," by William Carlos Williams, and "Musee des Beaux Arts," by W. H. Auden. This is not the focus of our assignment, but you should understand that in the world of art, as in the worlds of movies, television and magazines, the people who send the messages are acutely aware of the interplay between words and images. In our discussions, we have arrived at a consensus that the red sleeves of the farmer seem to be the visual focal point and that the legs of Icarus disappearing beneath the water seem to be the thematic focal point. We have agreed, roughly, that the painting seems to be saying something about how life goes on despite tragic events (even events that are downright fantastic). Think about how this idea is conveyed in images and about how it could be (or, in the case of the poems we read, is) conveyed in words. Then think about the differences and similarities between those conveyances.

Paper: The Verbal and the Visual in Contemporary Media
Using the principles you have learned about theme, verbal messages, visual focal point, thematic focal point, and other principles of language and media, locate an excellent example of how words and images work together to create a theme (which might also mean to make a point or sell a product). The definition of media for this assignment is diverse. It may be a printed magazine or television ads, music videos, cartoons (moving or still), or practically any other medium. You will have a week to locate your subject and write a preliminary draft of a paper in which you analyze the interplay between the visual and the verbal in it. (Considering our discussion about how sometimes words and images disconnect rather than connect, you might even choose an example in which there is dissonance rather than harmony between the verbal and the visual.) After the preliminary draft, we will proceed to the final paper.