Spring 2027

Western Culture: Literature and the Arts II

Explores the development of literature and arts from the Renaissance to the modern period, featuring figures like Shakespeare, Michelangelo, T.S. Eliot, and Picasso within societal and intellectual contexts.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Karen Britland4.5/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Karen Britland

The course required four short essays and out-of-class readings, though some students found the homework load minimal.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Analyze and evaluate early modern and modern art and literature in relation to the cultures that produced them.

  • Demonstrate an understanding of historical and contemporary interpretations of early modern and modern art and literature.

  • Demonstrate an understanding of the way that culture shapes the form, content, interpretation, and reception of art and literature.

  • Critically evaluate both the contributions and shortcomings of “Western” culture and its history.

  • Analyze, evaluate, and integrate multi-disciplinary approaches to human endeavor.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
ILS 204

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027

Karen Britland

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.88/5 from 42 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: 5.0/5 raw quality · 2.6/5 difficulty · 7 reviews

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

Past student reviews · Karen Britland

Karen Britland taught engaging, lecture-heavy classes with minimal presentations and four short essays. Students found the course straightforward and suitable for Com-B, though some noted that grading criteria could be confusing and essays were sometimes graded late.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2023: 3.36 GPA, 67.6% A/AB (n=105 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.31 GPA, 66.0% A/AB (n=103 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.70 GPA, 95.1% A/AB (n=81 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

KAREN BRITLAND is recorded teaching in Spring 2023, 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 / 800
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 190
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 190

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 · Karen Britland

Karen Britland delivers engaging lectures that synthesize art and culture, often going beyond facts to explore historical thinking.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.65 GPA, 82.9% A/AB (n=117 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.31 GPA, 66.0% A/AB (n=103 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.70 GPA, 95.1% A/AB (n=81 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Karen Britland

The course required four short essays and out-of-class readings, though some students found the homework load minimal.

Past student reviews · Karen Britland

Students noted that the Comm-B discussion component was sometimes unsatisfying or required extra effort to keep up.

Topics

  • Development of literature and arts from the Renaissance to the modern period
  • Key figures including Shakespeare, Michelangelo, T.S. Eliot, and Picasso
  • Literature and art in the context of society and ideas
  • Contributions and shortcomings of Western culture and its history

Skills

  • Analyze and evaluate early modern and modern art and literature in relation to the cultures that produced them
  • Demonstrate an understanding of historical and contemporary interpretations of early modern and modern art and literature
  • Demonstrate an understanding of how culture shapes the form, content, interpretation, and reception of art and literature
  • Critically evaluate the contributions and shortcomings of Western culture and its history
  • Analyze, evaluate, and integrate multi-disciplinary approaches to human endeavor

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 · 0.17 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.

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Selected offering source records
ILS 204 · Spring 2027

Western Culture: Literature and the Arts II

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": "1274:500:010479",
    "course_id": "ILS 204",
    "course_uid": "course_7f36deb1fb8912d0e9f1436c",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "010479",
    "source_subject_id": "500",
    "title": "Western Culture: Literature and the Arts II",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "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": "4898ac6e5aa21c890937804eec4820130f2065adcc280a4ac9cfc91d4b203b00",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}