Kobieta muzykująca jako remedium na niedomagania psychofizyczne w świetle wybranych utworów Henryka Sienkiewicza

Abstract

The subject matter of the article is an identification of the category: a woman in the light of music as a remedy to 19th century neurosis and other psychophysical ailments as presented in the works of Henryk Sienkiewicz. The writer’s reflection on the influence of music, in particular female musicality, its special aesthetic predisposition to the world of sounds and mental sensitivity to auditory stimuli, is analysed primarily in modern novels ( Without Dogman, Whirlpool, The Połaniecki Family), but also (contextually) in historical novels, journalistic works and the letters of the writer. The analysis makes it possible to observe characteristic presentation of female characters who remain in the world of music as an antidote, a remedy to all human ailments in the closer and further surroundings. A woman making music, appearing in Sienkiewicz’s journalistic works, becomes a truly polysemantic element of musical virtuosity in the belles-lettres of the author of Whirlpool which not only co֊constructs the plot, but also characterises the inner self of characters while being a multivalue symbol and a carrier of metaphysical content.