American Literary Cultures
Survey of American literary cultures exploring writers' engagement with identity, geography, and politics across genres from Native stories to postmodern novels.
Summary
Past student reviews · Monique Allewaert
Assessment consisted of a mix of long and short papers with no exams. One student noted the grading on papers was tough.
What you’ll be able to do
Critique works of American literature and identify how these works are in conversation with ideas of American history and culture.
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
↗All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course mapSophomore standing
- Sophomore standing
This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Prerequisite text tree
- Sophomore standing
Professors
Spring 2027No instructors recorded for this selection.
Historical instructors & teaching patterns
MONIQUE ALLEWAERT is recorded teaching in Spring 2015. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
RUSSELL CASTRONOVO is recorded teaching in Spring 2020, Fall 2021. 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 2027Schedule loads here as you scroll.
| Section | Mode | Enrolled / capacity | Waitlist |
|---|
Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.
Meeting source records
No records available.
Student experience
the class
Past student reviews · Monique Allewaert, Russ Castronovo
Past students found the course engaging, with instructors described as kind, accessible, and effective at making material interesting despite the workload.
Recent recorded grades — Spring 2020: 3.63 GPA, 82.6% A/AB (n=23 letter grades); Fall 2021: 3.45 GPA, 63.2% A/AB (n=19 letter grades); Spring 2023: 3.35 GPA, 83.3% A/AB (n=24 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
Past student reviews · Monique Allewaert
Assessment consisted of a mix of long and short papers with no exams. One student noted the grading on papers was tough.
Past student reviews · Russ Castronovo
Although the class initially seemed like a lot of reading, Professor Castronovo made it interesting and was willing to help students through their writing process.
Topics
- Questions of American identity, nationalism, and imperialism
- Literary genres including Native stories, slave narratives, and postmodern novels
Skills
- Critical reading and writing; analysis of literary and cultural texts
Grades
Latest available · Spring 2023— not enough history to project Spring 2027.
Grade distribution · % of letter grades
Grades over time
Through Spring 2023
More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data
Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.
Sources & history
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.
Selected offering source records
No offering records for the selected term.
Raw records
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Student reviews
Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.
Read original reviews
Grade history
Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.
Explore recorded gradesRecorded 2026-10-14
Model outputs & technical records
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces
Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.
Model & dataset provenance
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"requirements_status": "valid",
"dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
"observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
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