Spring 2027

Survey of Modern Chinese Literature

Survey of Modern Chinese Literature introduces Chinese-language prose fiction and poetry from the late 19th century through today.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Anatoly Detwyler3.8/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Anatoly Detwyler

One student was not expected to have two or more 10-page stories every week, but noted that students had to remember every detail for the oral midterm and final exam.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify and describe representative works and topics of modern Chinese literature.

  • Recognize and evaluate how these works respond to and are shaped by their social, cultural, historical, and political contexts both in China and globally.

  • Acquire skills of close reading by considering the importance of language, translation, literary form, narrative structure, and ideology.

  • Develop critical and creative thinking, supported by question-centered inquiry and discussion.

  • Improve written and oral communication.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
ASIAN 352

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.93/5 from 15 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 3.5/5 raw quality · 3.5/5 difficulty · 4 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Anatoly Detwyler

Students described Anatoly Detwyler as a passionate and knowledgeable instructor in Chinese literature who was generally well-regarded for his teaching. One student noted the course required reading two or more 10-page stories weekly and retaining every detail for oral midterm and final exams.

A separate review reported that attendance and assignments were graded harshly by his TA, describing the experience as terrible.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.44 GPA, 69.9% A/AB (n=73 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.31 GPA, 72.5% A/AB (n=69 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.14 GPA, 53.1% A/AB (n=49 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ANATOLY DETWYLER is recorded teaching in Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 900

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Anatoly Detwyler

The course emphasized close reading of long stories and detailed recall for oral exams. Students found the professor passionate but warned that the material could be boring if you dislike old narratives.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.44 GPA, 69.9% A/AB (n=73 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.31 GPA, 72.5% A/AB (n=69 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.14 GPA, 53.1% A/AB (n=49 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Anatoly Detwyler

One student was not expected to have two or more 10-page stories every week, but noted that students had to remember every detail for the oral midterm and final exam.

Past student reviews · Anatoly Detwyler

One student stated that attendance and assignments were graded harshly by the TA, which led them to advise against taking the class.

Topics

  • Chinese-language prose fiction and poetry from the late 19th century through today.
  • Social, cultural, historical, and political contexts in China and globally.
  • Language, translation, literary form, narrative structure, and ideology.

Skills

  • Identifying and describing representative works and topics of modern Chinese literature.
  • Evaluating how literary works respond to social, cultural, historical, and political contexts.
  • Close reading focusing on language, translation, literary form, narrative structure, and ideology.
  • Critical and creative thinking through question-centered inquiry and discussion.
  • Written and oral communication.

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
ASIAN 352 · Spring 2027

Survey of Modern Chinese Literature

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:185:005416",
    "course_id": "ASIAN 352",
    "course_uid": "course_40646af719166d8c6fd6007d",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "005416",
    "source_subject_id": "185",
    "title": "Survey of Modern Chinese Literature",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "1c5043dc4599abf2c2dfce7b54d3b76adbb352c73e48a2dcb3e3471a97e0c92b",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}