James Elkins

James Elkins

After 19 years of work, my experimental novel called Five Strange Languages is being published by Unnamed Press. It’s a large, complex project in five volumes. Lots more information here (scroll down).

I’m posting weekly contests on social media. Anyone who can guess the hidden allusions gets a free copy. Test your literary knowledge! Here is a list of contests that are currently open. If you can identify one, email me for your copy.

I have uploaded 75 short videos on art theory to Youtube. These are for art students. They cover media, politics, gender, the sublime, skill, formal analysis, craft, time, narrative, Eurocentrism, style, research, the body… lots of subjects.

[Updated March 2025. Pages with information about the novel update live.]

Recent uploads: the books Pictures and Tears, Why Are Our Pictures Puzzles?, How to Use Your Eyes, and an essay on the complicity between torture and formal analysis. Another entire book free, on Academia: What is Interesting Writing in Art History? It’s on ways to write experimental art history.

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I use Facebook for posting about events and reading groups. This page, with 5000 followers, is the main one.

On Twitter I follow literary criticism, contemporary novels, insects, and blackwater photography.
A depressing place to go to monitor the h- and i-indices, banes of the UK academic system.
There is a lot of material here, including entire books. If you download something and write a comment, I’ll respond in a day or two.
There is a large community here, but I have not been able to find a use for it.
Samples of the sheet music and photographs
from the novel in progress.
It’s become a dull site since they have begun to clean up their illegal posts.
The site is mainly used by scientists, and has some interesting connections.
Humanities Commons
I’m in several groups in the MLA and CAA, but the place is quiet as a church without mice.