ДРВО У КУЛТУРНОМ ПАМЋЕЊУ НЕМАЧКОГ НАРОДА НА ПРИМЕРУ ПРИКАЗА КЊИГЕ ПЕТЕРА ВОЛЕБЕНА ТАЈНИ ЖИВОТ ДРВЕЋА
THE TREE IN THE CULTURAL MEMORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE ON THE EXAMPLE OF PETER WOHLLEBEN’S BOOK THE SECRET LIFE OF TREES

Summary/Abstract: Peter Wohlleben’s book The Secret Life of Trees became a best-seller after the very first release in 2015. In the meantime, it has been translated into many languages, Serbian included. The question is why a book written by a forester received such positive public reactions. In order to answer this question, the paper takes a deeper insight into the concept of cultural memory of the German people. The paper is primarily focused on symbolic and semantic traits of the tree in German mythology, German literature since the Middle Ages onwards, as well as the significance of the tree symbolism in creating a national identity of the German people in the 19th century. The review from diverse fields that have formed the cultural memory of the German people explains that the concept of the tree has had a significant place in the cultural memory of the German people since the very beginning. Wohlleben’s revival of this topic explains the great success of the book in which the very essence and life of the trees are explained by the author. The paper shows how the author uses a refined way to connect his forestry expertise to the topics and motifs from world literature by reviewing certain chapters of the book. These are friendship, enmity, family, love, the process of getting old, benevolence, tolerance and death. Wohlleben depicts trees by permeating them with their symbolic and semantic meanings, while, at the same time, staying closer to science than literature. However, in order to get closer to his audience, the author uses different figures such as anthropomorphism, personification, comparison, metaphors and humor. By using such a thoughtful way of describing, Wohlleben has succeeded in reaching a wider audience.

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