Beyond the Sovereign Self

“In a superlative demonstration of a hypothesis in action, Grant H. Kester’s definitive study Beyond the Sovereign Self effectively melts down, then reimagines our stagnated concepts of aesthetic autonomy and avant-gardism in a dauntless bid to retheorize the increasingly entangled, if not indistinguishable, realms of twenty-first-century social activism and art.” - Gregory Sholette, author of The Art of Activism and the Activism of Art

“With characteristic thoroughness, Grant H. Kester articulates the radical potential in challenging the cherished notion of art’s autonomy. Centering dialogic and activist art practices, he insightfully argues that the social labor of cultural resistance necessarily operates in generative forms of collectivity and dissensus.” - Jennifer A. González, coeditor of Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology

“Beyond the Sovereign Self serves to clear the space for another kind of art history, one focused on dialogical, not dialectical, approaches. In a world where subaltern subjects are more empowered than ever to speak, he reminds artists and art historians of the need to listen.” - John Zarobell, Theory & Event

"[Kester's] passion for this topic and his commitment to research is evident, and this title will serve as a record as we see the world change along with the next generation of artists." - Eboni Jones-Stewart, ARLIS/NA

"Kester’s ambition in Beyond the Sovereign Self, and by implication, in the entire two-volume work, is quite extraordinary. . . Kester’s ambitious work serves as a timely and substantial appreciation of socially engaged art, bearing witness to an exemplary understanding of its radically democratic essence in all its complexity." - Björn Borsteinsson, Journal of Cultural Management and Policy

"A re-affirmation of the politicised and activist artistic and aesthetic practices that have been at the core of Kester’s scholarship to date. . . . an insightful, well-documented and often convincing critique of a certain idea of aesthetic autonomy; Kester’s is a ‘strong’ theory, the strength of which lies in its reading and re-evaluation of key philosophical and art theoretical texts, more so than in the heuristic purchase it demonstrates on artistic—and political—practice, past or present." - Steyn Bergs, Radical Philosophy