Bohemianism

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For other uses, see Bohemian (disambiguation).

The term Bohemian describes artists, writers, and disenchanted people of all sorts who wished to live non-traditional lifestyles. It emerged in 19th century France. The term reflects the French perception, held since the fifteenth century, that the gypsies had come from Bohemia.

1 Origin of term
2 People
3 Bohemian communities past and present
4 Notes
5 In popular culture
6 Related links
7 External link

[edit] Origin of term

Even the Spanish gypsy in a French opera Carmen set in Seville is referred to as a bohémienne in Meilhac and Halévy's libretto (1875). Literary bohemians were associated in the French imagination with roving gypsies, outsiders apart from conventional society and untroubled by its disapproval. The term carries a connotation of arcane enlightenment (the opposite of 'Philistines'), and also carries a less frequently intended, pejorative connotation of carelessness about personal hygiene and marital orthodoxy. Bohemians were often associated with drug use, alcoholism, and simple living.

“	The term 'bohemian' has come to be very commonly accepted in our day as the description of a certain kind of literary gypsy, no matter in what language he speaks, or what city he inhabits .... A bohemian is simply an artist or littérateur who, consciously or unconsciously, secedes from conventionality in life and in art.	„
—Westminster Review

Henri Murger's collection of short stories, Scènes de la Vie de Bohème ("Scenes of Bohemian Life"), published in 1845, popularized the term's usage in France. Ideas from Murger's collection formed the theme of Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème (1896).

In English, bohemian in this sense was first popularized in William Makepeace Thackeray's novel, Vanity Fair, published in 1848.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Bohemian (or Lise the bohemian), 1868, oil on canvas, Berlin, Germany: Nationalgalerie

[edit] People

The term has become associated with various artistic or academic communities and is used as a generalized adjective describing such people, environs, or situations: bohemian' (boho - informal) is defined in The American College Dictionary as "a person with artistic or intellectual tendencies, who lives and acts with no regard for conventional rules of behavior."

Many prominent European and American literary figures of the last 150 years belonged to the bohemian counterculture, and any comprehensive 'list of bohemians' would be tediously long. Bohemianism has been approved of by some bourgeois writers such as Honoré de Balzac, but most conservative cultural critics do not condone bohemian lifestyles. Ironically enough, bohemianism by definition can only exist within a framework of conservative values.

Noted New York Times columnist David Brooks contends that much of the cultural ethos of upper-class Americans is Bohemian-derived, coining the paradoxical term "Bourgeois Bohemians" or "Bobos."<ref>Brooks, David (2001). Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0684853787.</ref>

[edit] Bohemian communities past and present

By extension, Bohemia meant any place where one could live and work cheaply, and behave unconventionally; a community of free souls beyond the pale of respectable society. Several cities and neighbourhoods came to be associated with bohemianism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: Montmartre and Montparnasse in Paris; Greenwich Village, East Village and the Lower East Side in New York City; Provincetown, Massachusetts; Carmel-by-the-Sea, California; Venice Beach, California; North Beach, Haight-Ashbury, and the Mission District in San Francisco; the French Quarter in New Orleans; Chelsea, Bedford Park, Fitzrovia and Soho in London; Schwabing in Munich; Ipanema and Leblon in Rio de Janeiro; Skadarlija in Belgrade.

Current bohemias include Szentendre and Budapest in Hungary, Barranco in Lima, Peru; Dali in China; Chiang Rai in Thailand; Kathmandu in Nepal; Amsterdam in the Netherlands; Prague in the Czech Republic; Užupis in Vilnius, Lithuania, and Vama Veche in Romania. In Australia, there is North Adelaide (in Adelaide, South Australia), Newtown in Sydney and Fitzroy in Melbourne, Queen Street West, The Junction and Kensington Market in Toronto and Mile End in Montreal. In Mexico, there is Coyoacan, Roma and Condesa, and in Argentina, there is Palermo-Hollywood. In the UK there is Deptford and New Cross, South East London, plus West Cornwall, UK (as most evidenced in certain Drama professionals in the region)

In the United States, the bohemian impulse can be seen in the 1960s hippie movement counterculture (which was in turn informed by the Beat generation via authors such as Jack Kerouac). Major U.S. cities often have bohemian areas such as Williamsburg, Brooklyn in New York City and Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. Some entire U.S. cities, often those associated with universities and elite liberal arts colleges, may have a Bohemian reputation or image; examples include Berkeley CA, Eugene OR, Santa Cruz CA, Boulder CO, Madison WI, Ann Arbor MI, New Paltz NY, Athens, OH, and Burlington VT. Other U.S. cities may have a thriving bohemian community but not a bohemian image, such as Pittsburgh, PA or Austin, TX.

One of the ironies of these neo-bohemian communities in the United States is their tendency towards rapid gentrification and the commercialization and decay of the bohemian culture that provided the initial attractive character of the community. <ref>Mele, Christopher (2000). Selling the Lower East Side. Univ of Minnesota. ISBN 0-8166-3182-4.</ref> <ref>Lloyd, Richard (2006). Neo-Bohemia. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-95182-8.</ref> <ref>Cash, Stephanie. "“Landlords put a squeeze on Brooklyn artists.”". Art in America 89 (3): 39-40.</ref>

The Rainbow Family of Living Light and associated Rainbow Gatherings may be seen as another contemporary worldwide expression of the bohemian impulse.<ref>Niman, Michael I. (1997). People of the Rainbow: A Nomadic Utopia. The University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 0-87049-988-2.</ref>

[edit] Notes

[edit] In popular culture

Aki Kaurismäki's movie Boheemielämää(La vie de bohème), based on the play La vie de bohème by Henri Murger.
Jonathan Larson's Broadway musical and film Rent, based on Puccini's La bohème, depicts the Bohemian culture of New York City in the 1990s. One of the feature numbers, La Vie Boheme, addresses the death of bohemia as an end of the neighborhood as a haven for these bohemians, while celebrating the ideals and history that formed this counterculture.
The movie Moulin Rouge! by Baz Luhrmann bears relation to the opera La bohème and includes many references to the Bohemian subculture.
Queen's song, "Bohemian Rhapsody," a parody of a rock opera.
The fashion for so-called "Bohemian" or "boho" chic in the early 21st century included a number of elements from earlier eras.
The Dandy Warhols' album, "Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia," as well as their biggest hit, "Bohemian Like You."
The Thrills' album "Let's Bottle Bohemia."
Bohemia is also a popular export beer from Mexico.

[edit] Related links

[edit] External link

Bohemianism and Counter-Culture

Romanticism
18th century - 19th century
Romantic music: Beethoven - Berlioz - Brahms - Chopin - Grieg - Liszt - Puccini - Schumann - Tchaikovsky - The Five - Verdi - Wagner
Romantic poetry: Blake - Burns - Byron - Coleridge - Goethe - Hölderlin - Hugo - Keats - Lamartine - Leopardi - Lermontov - Mickiewicz - Nerval - Novalis - Pushkin - Shelley - Słowacki - Wordsworth
Visual art and architecture: Brullov - Constable - Corot - Delacroix - Friedrich - Géricault - Gothic Revival architecture - Goya - Hudson River school - Leutze - Nazarene movement - Palmer - Turner
Romantic culture: Bohemianism - Romantic nationalism
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