diff --git a/django/test/utils.py b/django/test/utils.py
index 0ca7a1a25d0..87f23118971 100644
--- a/django/test/utils.py
+++ b/django/test/utils.py
@@ -196,23 +196,17 @@ class override_settings(object):
     def __call__(self, test_func):
         from django.test import TransactionTestCase
         if isinstance(test_func, type) and issubclass(test_func, TransactionTestCase):
-            # When decorating a class, we need to construct a new class
-            # with the same name so that the test discovery tools can
-            # get a useful name.
+            original_pre_setup = test_func._pre_setup
+            original_post_teardown = test_func._post_teardown
             def _pre_setup(innerself):
                 self.enable()
-                test_func._pre_setup(innerself)
+                original_pre_setup(innerself)
             def _post_teardown(innerself):
-                test_func._post_teardown(innerself)
+                original_post_teardown(innerself)
                 self.disable()
-            inner = type(
-                test_func.__name__,
-                (test_func,),
-                {
-                    '_pre_setup': _pre_setup,
-                    '_post_teardown': _post_teardown,
-                    '__module__': test_func.__module__,
-                })
+            test_func._pre_setup = _pre_setup
+            test_func._post_teardown = _post_teardown
+            return test_func
         else:
             @wraps(test_func)
             def inner(*args, **kwargs):
diff --git a/docs/topics/testing.txt b/docs/topics/testing.txt
index f4c06e5a53c..1a4515673a8 100644
--- a/docs/topics/testing.txt
+++ b/docs/topics/testing.txt
@@ -1450,6 +1450,15 @@ The decorator can also be applied to test case classes::
 
     LoginTestCase = override_settings(LOGIN_URL='/other/login/')(LoginTestCase)
 
+.. note::
+
+    When given a class, the decorator modifies the class directly and
+    returns it; it doesn't create and return a modified copy of it.  So if
+    you try to tweak the above example to assign the return value to a
+    different name than ``LoginTestCase``, you may be surprised to find that
+    the original ``LoginTestCase`` is still equally affected by the
+    decorator.
+
 On Python 2.6 and higher you can also use the well known decorator syntax to
 decorate the class::
 
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/settings_tests/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/settings_tests/tests.py
index 3f76368cea8..ff2334a95fe 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/settings_tests/tests.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/settings_tests/tests.py
@@ -35,6 +35,38 @@ class FullyDecoratedTestCase(TestCase):
 
 FullyDecoratedTestCase = override_settings(TEST='override')(FullyDecoratedTestCase)
 
+
+class ClassDecoratedTestCaseSuper(TestCase):
+    """
+    Dummy class for testing max recursion error in child class call to
+    super().  Refs #17011.
+
+    """
+    def test_max_recursion_error(self):
+        pass
+
+
+@override_settings(TEST='override')
+class ClassDecoratedTestCase(ClassDecoratedTestCaseSuper):
+    def test_override(self):
+        self.assertEqual(settings.TEST, 'override')
+
+    @override_settings(TEST='override2')
+    def test_method_override(self):
+        self.assertEqual(settings.TEST, 'override2')
+
+    def test_max_recursion_error(self):
+        """
+        Overriding a method on a super class and then calling that method on
+        the super class should not trigger infinite recursion. See #17011.
+
+        """
+        try:
+            super(ClassDecoratedTestCase, self).test_max_recursion_error()
+        except RuntimeError, e:
+            self.fail()
+
+
 class SettingGetter(object):
     def __init__(self):
         self.test = getattr(settings, 'TEST', 'undefined')