New Books Network Maia Kotrosits, "After Transformation: Rewriting Time, Christian Late Antiquity, and the Present" (Duke UP, 2025)
Nov 24, 2025
Maia Kotrosits, a Visiting Scholar at Harvard's Center for the Study of World Religions, shares her insights from her book, which explores the lyrical history of Christian late antiquity. She argues for the power of lyrical historiography in capturing lived experiences and marginalized voices often overlooked in traditional narratives. Kotrosits connects the past with the present, discussing how historical writing can embody beauty and vulnerability. She critiques prevailing notions of transformation, revealing the complexities of continuity and change throughout history.
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Lyric As A Way Of Knowing
- Lyrical history treats poetic form as an epistemology, not mere ornamentation.
- Maia Kotrosits argues lyricism reveals lived interiority and experiences standard history misses.
Small Moments Reveal Big Truths
- Lyrical history makes visible the granular, daily experiences that big narratives erase.
- Maia says this form surfaces restlessness, trauma, and non-dominant people's lives beneath grand events.
Broken Stories Resist Teleology
- Broken narratives can better reflect a fractured world and resist teleology.
- Maia uses juxtaposition and nonchronological time to avoid colonial, inevitable histories.
