var MyView = Backbone.View.extend({ tagname:'div', id: 'myView', className: 'views', attributes:{'data-foo':'foo','data-bar':'bar'}, initialize:function(){ this.render() //just like calling myViewInstance.render(); }, render:function(){ //logs <div id="myView" class="views" data-foo="foo" data-bar="bar"> console.log(this.el); } }); var myViewInstance = new MyView(); //look in render()