Eighteenth Century Literature and Culture
Covers eighteenth-century literature and culture, focusing on writers like Dryden, Defoe, Swift, and Pope.
Summary
Past student reviews · Mark Vareschi
Students wrote a lot of essays for the class, though grading was described as pretty fair.
What you’ll be able to do
Identify and critique key themes in eighteenth-century literature and culture, including such writers as Dryden, Defoe, Swift and Pope.
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
MARK VARESCHI is recorded teaching in Spring 2018, Fall 2020. 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
Student experience
the class
Past student reviews · Mark Vareschi
The course focused on surveillance themes rather than 18th-century literature as listed, featuring unstructured lectures that meandered.
Recent recorded grades — Spring 2018: 3.63 GPA, 83.3% A/AB (n=30 letter grades); Fall 2020: 3.47 GPA, 80.0% A/AB (n=30 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.59 GPA, 82.4% A/AB (n=17 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
Past student reviews · Mark Vareschi
Students wrote a lot of essays for the class, though grading was described as pretty fair.
Past student reviews · Sandra Arfa
Sandra Arfa was initially perceived as standoffish due to her direct communication style, but students found her to be wonderful, experienced, and easy-going.
Topics
- Eighteenth-century literature and culture.
- Relationships among society, literature, and language.
Skills
- Critique key themes in eighteenth-century literature and culture.
- Apply analytical methods to literary and cultural texts.
- Use writing to convey critical analysis.
- Analyze relationships between society, literature, and language.
Grades
Latest available · Spring 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.
Grade distribution · % of letter grades
Grades over time
Through Spring 2025
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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