Bohemianism
Though a Bohemian is a native of the
Czech province of
Bohemia, a secondary meaning for
bohemian emerged in 19th century
France. The term was used to describe artists, writers, and disenchanted people of all sorts who wished to live non-traditional lifestyles.
Encyclopedia
Though a Bohemian is a native of the
Czech province of
Bohemia, a secondary meaning for
bohemian emerged in 19th century
France. The term was used to describe artists, writers, and disenchanted people of all sorts who wished to live non-traditional lifestyles.
Origin of term
The term reflects the French perception, held since the fifteenth century, that the
gypsies had come from Bohemia. Even the Spanish gypsy in a French opera
Carmen is a French [i] opera [i] by Georges Bizet [i]. ...
set in
Seville is referred to as a
bohémienne in Meilhac and Halévy's libretto . 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 , and also carries a less frequently intended, pejorative connotation of carelessness about personal hygiene and marital orthodoxy. Bohemians were often associated with drug use and self-induced poverty.
Henri Murger's collection of short stories,
Scènes de la Vie de Bohème , 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 .
In English,
bohemian in this sense was first popularized in
William Makepeace Thackeray's novel,
Vanity Fair is a novel [i] by William Makepeace Thackeray [i] that satirizes [i] ...
, published in 1848.
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 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.
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 and the
Lower East Side in
New York City;
Carmel-by-the-Sea, 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 Newtown]] in [[Sydney]] and [[Fitzroy, Victoria|Fitzroy]] in [[Melbourne]], and [[Kensington Market]] in [[Toronto]] and [[Mile End |Mile End]] in [[Montreal]]. In [[Mexico]], there is Coyoacan, Roma and Condesa, and in [[Argentina]], there is Palermo-Hollywood.
In the
United States, the bohemian impulse is best understood in terms of 1960s
counterculture . Current-day "bohemian" or counter-culture communities are often are associated with universities and elite liberal arts colleges; examples include
Eugene, Oregon;
Santa Cruz, California;
Boulder, Colorado,
Madison, Wisconsin, and
Burlington, Vermont.
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.
The
Rainbow Family of Living Light and associated
Rainbow Gatherings are unquestionably an expression of the bohemian impulse.
Notes
In popular culture
- Jonathan Larson's Broadway musical and film Rent, based on Puccini's La bohème, depicts the Bohemian culture of New York City in the late 1980s. 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! is a 2001 [i] Academy Award [i] winning musical film [i] directed by Baz Luhrmann [i] ...
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."
- The Thrills' album "Let's Bottle Bohemia."
- Bohemia is also a popular export beer from Mexico.
Related links
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