Spring 2027

Literature and Culture I: to the 18th Century

Survey of English literature and culture through the 18th century, covering genres from epic to sonnet and developing critical reading and writing skills.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Joseph Bowling4.0/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Joseph Bowling

The course involves significant reading but minimal assignments, with grades concentrated in a portfolio of reading responses and reflections. Bowling does not grade these assignments; TAs handle grading based on rubric interpretations.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify and critique key themes, styles and issues in English literature and culture up to the eighteenth century.

  • Identify and apply methods and approaches for analysis of literary and cultural texts to demonstrate literature's contemporary and historical relevance.

  • Leverage writing as a mode of learning and means of conveying critical analysis.

  • Analyze relationships among society, literature, and language that underlie the construction of beliefs.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
ENGL 241

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027

Joseph Bowling

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.24/5 from 33 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: 3.4/5 raw quality · 2.6/5 difficulty · 5 reviews

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

Past student reviews · Joseph Bowling

Joseph Bowling teaches ENGL 241 with a heavy reading load but minimal assignments, where the grade concentrates in a portfolio of reading responses and reflections. Students found the lectures engaging or boring, and noted that grading depends on TA interpretation since Bowling does not grade the assignments.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2024: 3.84 GPA, 95.3% A/AB (n=107 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.73 GPA, 87.2% A/AB (n=109 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.71 GPA, 87.1% A/AB (n=139 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Lisa Cooper

Past students found Lisa Cooper's exams heavily lecture-based, requiring attendance to capture specific details not posted online. While some described the grading as lenient and the material engaging, others reported strict attendance policies, a difficult grading curve, and an intimidating atmosphere that made the class rough despite her passion for Medieval Literature.

JORDAN ZWECK is recorded teaching in Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JOSEPH BOWLING is recorded teaching in Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

LISA COOPER is recorded teaching in Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2023. 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 / 1760
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 220
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 220
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 220
DIS 306Classroom Instruction0 / 220
DIS 307Classroom Instruction0 / 220
DIS 308Classroom Instruction0 / 220
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 220
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 220

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 · Joseph Bowling

Bowling teaches with a transdisciplinary approach, integrating linguistic, filmic, and folkloric perspectives to engage with texts. He encourages a classroom environment that values multiple interpretations of the material.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.73 GPA, 87.2% A/AB (n=109 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.59 GPA, 81.9% A/AB (n=105 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.71 GPA, 87.1% A/AB (n=139 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Joseph Bowling

The course involves significant reading but minimal assignments, with grades concentrated in a portfolio of reading responses and reflections. Bowling does not grade these assignments; TAs handle grading based on rubric interpretations.

Past student reviews · Joseph Bowling

Some students found the lectures monotonous and noted that historical tangents made text analysis harder. Others reported strict grading and felt the instructor's historical views influenced assignment requirements.

Topics

  • Epic, romance, drama, and the sonnet
  • Writing technologies from parchment to the printing press
  • Themes, styles, and issues in pre-18th-century literature

Skills

  • Critical reading and writing
  • Critiquing themes, styles, and issues in pre-18th-century literature
  • Applying analytical methods to literary and cultural texts
  • Analyzing relationships among society, literature, and language

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.23 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

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.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
ENGL 241 · Spring 2027

Literature and Culture I: to the 18th Century

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": "1274:352:023847",
    "course_id": "ENGL 241",
    "course_uid": "course_00825210f2e0cc8154955d31",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "023847",
    "source_subject_id": "352",
    "title": "Literature and Culture I: to the 18th Century",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
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 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "417a931fda49f78a6565c6ebd84d61c114140dd0d7d470d0e4af84b77ee3538d",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}