CULTIVATING WILDERNESS - THE PLACE OF LAND IN THE FICTION OF ABBEY,EDAND BERRY,WENDELL

Novelists Wendell Berry and Edward Abbey consider the natural world in a way most of their predecessors did not: the land itself as a comple x character which deserves the respect of its human inhabitant. ''Cult ivating wilderness'' presents an overview of this relationship in Abbe y's and Berry's fiction relation not only how the authors contrast cha racters attuned to the land and its patterns with others who ''out of sync'' with the natural world, but also how both Berry and Abbey deal with the interaction of human and natural communities-especially in a ''modern world'' which seemingly prefers to control nature and eradica te mystery. While it is not the role of fiction to offer blueprints fo r economic, environmental, or social policies, the novels and short st ories of Wendell Berry and Ed Abbey do address important issues and el oquently call for a new paradigm for human behavior-at individual, com munity, and national levels-within and toward the natural world.