According to Paul Hunter and Robert ter Horst, modern scholarship now focuses on various cultural as well as specifically literary and aesthetic elements in accounting for the origins and development of the novel. Among such cultural elements are the connections between novels and money, social classes, readership, and gender.
At the time of this interview, Hunter, a Fellow at the National Humanities Center (1985-86) was professor of English at the University of Rochester. Ter Horst, a Fellow at the Center (1982-83), was professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Arizona.
This edition of Soundings was conducted by Wayne J. Pond.
