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1. Theorizing Visual Studies

   Writing Through the Discipline

   Edited by James Elkins

   It could be argued that visual studies, at its best, is the place where assumptions about framing, reliability, voice, institutionalization, identity, and the subject positions of scholars are at their most open. An anthology or reader should not just theorize that flux: it should enact it, and...

   To Be Published November 30th 2012 by Routledge
2. Theorizing Visual Studies

   Writing Through the Discipline

   Edited by James Elkins

   It could be argued that visual studies, at its best, is the place where assumptions about framing, reliability, voice, institutionalization, identity, and the subject positions of scholars are at their most open. An anthology or reader should not just theorize that flux: it should enact it, and...

   To Be Published November 30th 2012 by Routledge
3. Representations of Pain in Art and Visual Culture

   Edited by Maria Pia Di Bella, James Elkins

   Series: Routledge Advances in Art and Visual Studies

   The presentation of bodies in pain has been a major concern in Western art since the time of the Greeks. The Christian tradition is closely entwined with such themes, from the central images of the Passion to the representations of bloody martyrdoms. The remnants of this tradition are evident in...

   To Be Published September 10th 2012 by Routledge
4. What Photography Is

   By James Elkins

   In What Photography Is, James Elkins examines the strange and alluring power of photography in the same provocative and evocative manner as he explored oil painting in his best-selling What Painting Is. In the course of an extended imaginary dialogue with Roland Barthes's Camera Lucida, Elkins...

   Published April 25th 2011 by Routledge
5. Re-Enchantment

   Edited by James Elkins, David Morgan

   Series: The Art Seminar

   The near-absence of religion from contemporary discourse on art is one of the most fundamental issues in postmodernism. Artists critical of religion can find voices in the art world, but religion itself, including spirituality, is taken to be excluded by the very project of modernism. The sublime,...

   Published October 5th 2008 by Routledge
6. How to Use Your Eyes

   By James Elkins

   "... visually stunning and mentally stimulating."—Scientific American "…the author of What Painting Is (1998) has written a fascinating new book filled with gorgeous illustrations that would inspire us ‘to learn to see anything.’ It's a tall order, to be sure, but one that the author pulls off...

   Published September 28th 2008 by Routledge
7. Renaissance Theory

   Edited by James Elkins, Robert Williams

   Series: The Art Seminar

   Renaissance Theory presents an animated conversation among art historians about the optimal ways of conceptualizing Renaissance art, and the links between Renaissance art and contemporary art and theory. This is the first discussion of its kind, involving not only questions within Renaissance...

   Published April 24th 2008 by Routledge
8. The State of Art Criticism

   Edited by James Elkins, Michael Newman

   Series: The Art Seminar

   Art criticism is spurned by universities, but widely produced and read. It is seldom theorized and its history has hardly been investigated. The State of Art Criticism presents an international conversation among art historians and critics that considers the relation between criticism and art...

   Published December 16th 2007 by Routledge
9. Landscape Theory

   Edited by Rachel DeLue, James Elkins

   Series: The Art Seminar

   Artistic representations of landscape are studied widely in areas ranging from art history to geography to sociology, yet there has been little consensus about how to understand the relationship between landscape and art. This book brings together more than fifty scholars from these multiple&...

   Published December 16th 2007 by Routledge
10. Visual Literacy

    Edited by James Elkins

    What does it mean to be visually literate? Does it mean different things in the arts and the sciences? In the West, in Asia, or in developing nations? If we all need to become "visually literate," what does that mean in practical terms? The essays gathered here examine a host of issues surrounding...

    Published October 10th 2007 by Routledge