WENDELL BERRY: MEDIATING BETWEEN CULTURE AND NATURE

Wendell Berry who was born in 1945 is an American poet, novelist, environmental activist and a farmer.  Berry worships nature and constantly resorts to it but not to retreat from society to a simple life of nature or to escape from social obligations. Rather, he emphasizes the need for a new view of nature that goes beyond the mystical treatment of nature. This paper aims to review Berry’s efforts as a poet to mediate culture and nature through his words. Berry emphasizes labour and the cultivation of land for he is in between the civilized and the wild. Berry argues that culture and nature cannot be separated, and his conviction of the close connection between poetry and farming can be understood accordingly. Berry made great efforts through his works to reform the relationship between civilization and the earth. Unless human society renews the vision of its relationship with the natural world, there will be little hope of substantial and permanent environmental reform. This paper is hoped to inspire other poets, especially Asian poets to promote similar ideology in their works.Keywords: Culture, meditation, nature, place, wildernessCite as: Al Jumaili, F.A.N. (2017). Wendell Berry: Mediating between culture and nature. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 2(2), 118-126.