Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits, with few permanent ties. Bohemians can be wanderers, adventurers, or vagabonds.
The term
bohemian, of French origin, was first used in the English language in the nineteenth century to describe the non-traditional lifestyles of marginalized and impoverished
artistThe definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. the worlds best artist is a man named mitchell peter lay who is often loved by the ladies. The common useage in both everyday speech and...
s,
writerA writer is anyone who creates a written work, though the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms.-Profession:...
s,
journalistA journalist is a person who practises journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues, and people while striving for viewpoints that are not biased.Reporters are one type of journalist...
s,
musicianA musician is a person who performs or writes music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music:* An instrumentalist plays a musical instrument.* A singer uses his or her voice as an instrument....
s, and
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
s in major European cities. Bohemians were associated with unorthodox or anti-establishment political or social viewpoints, which were often expressed through
free loveThe term free love has been used since at least the 19th century to describe a social movement that rejects marriage, which is seen as a form of social bondage, especially for women. Much of the free-love tradition is an offshoot of anarchism, and reflects a civil libertarian philosophy that seeks...
, frugality, and/or
voluntary povertySimple living is a lifestyle characterized by minimizing the "more is better" pursuit of wealth and consumption...
.
The term emerged in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
in the early 19th century when artists and creators began to concentrate in the lower-rent, lower class gypsy neighborhoods. The term
bohémien was a common term for the Romani people of France, who had reached Western Europe via
BohemiaBohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Czech Republic...
.
Origin of term
Literary
Bohemians were associated in the French imagination with roving Gypsies (called
bohemians because they were believed to have arrived from
BohemiaBohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Czech Republic...
), outsiders apart from conventional society and untroubled by its disapproval. The term carries a connotation of arcane enlightenment (the opposite of
PhilistinesPhilistinism is a derogatory term used to describe a particular attitude or set of values. A person called a Philistine , is said to despise or undervalue art, beauty, intellectual content, and/or spiritual values...
), and also carries a less frequently intended, pejorative connotation of carelessness about personal hygiene and marital fidelity. The Spanish gypsy in the French opera
CarmenCarmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
set in
SevilleSeville is the artistic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level. The inhabitants of the city are known as Sevillanos or...
, is referred to as a
bohémienne in Meilhac and Halévy's libretto (1875).
Henri MurgerLouis-Henri Murger, also known as Henri Murger and Henry Murger was a French novelist and poet....
's collection of short stories
Scènes de la Vie de BohèmeLa Vie de Bohème is a work by Henry Murger, published in 1851. Although it is commonly called a novel, it doesn't follow a standard novel form. Rather, it is a collection of loosely related stories, all set in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the 1840s, romanticizing bohemian life in a playful way...
(
Scenes of Bohemian Life), published in 1845, was written to glorify and legitimize Bohemia. Murger's collection formed the basis of
Giacomo PucciniGiacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
La bohèmeLa bohème is an opera in four acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger. The world première performance of La bohème was in Turin on February 1, 1896 at the Teatro Regio and conducted by the young Arturo...
(1896). (Puccini's work, in turn, became
Jonathan LarsonJonathan Larson was an American composer and playwright noted for the serious social issues of multiculturalism, addiction, homophobia, and AIDS explored in his work. Typical examples of his use of these themes are found in his works, Rent and tick, tick... BOOM!...
's source material for the
musicalMusical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
RentRent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème. It tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York's Lower East Side in the thriving days of Bohemian Alphabet City, under...
, later a
feature film of the same nameRent is a American film adaptation of the Broadway musical, which was based on Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning musical. This musical-based movie details of a couple of bohemians and their struggles with sexuality, drugs, living under the shadow of AIDS, and of course, paying...
. Like Puccini, Larson explores a Bohemian enclave in a dense urban area, in this case,
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
at the end of the 20th century. The show features a song, "
La Vie Boheme"La Vie Bohème" is a song in the musical Rent. The second part of this song ends the first act of the show. In between the two halves of the song is an interlude with Roger and Mimi...
," which celebrates postmodern Bohemian culture.)
In English,
Bohemian in this sense was initially popularized in
William Makepeace ThackerayWilliam Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.-Biography:...
's novel,
Vanity Fair, published in 1848. Public perceptions of the alternative life-styles supposedly led by artists were further molded by
George du MaurierGeorge Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier was a French-born British author and cartoonist.-Biography:He studied art in Paris, and moved to Antwerp, Belgium, where he lost vision in his left eye. He consulted an oculist in Düsseldorf, Germany, where he met his future wife, Emma Wightwick...
's highly romanticized best-selling novel of Bohemian culture
TrilbyTrilby is a gothic horror novel by George du Maurier and one of the most popular novels of its time, perhaps the second best selling novel of the Fin de siècle period after Bram Stoker's Dracula. Trilby is set in the 1850s in an idyllic bohemian Paris...
(1894). The novel outlines the fortunes of three expatriate English artists, their Irish model, and two very colorful Eastern European musicians, in the artists' quarter of Paris.
In Spanish literature, the Bohemian impulse can be seen in
Ramón del Valle-InclánRamón María del Valle-Inclán y de la Peña , Spanish dramatist, novelist and member of the Spanish Generation of 98, is considered perhaps the most noteworthy and certainly the most radical dramatist working to subvert the traditionalism of the Spanish theatrical establishment in the early part...
's play
Luces de Bohemia (
Bohemian Lights), published in 1920.
American bohemianism
In 1845, Bohemian nationals began to emigrate to the United States, and from 1848 the wave included some of the radicals and ex-priests who had wanted a constitutional government. In New York City in 1857, a group of some 15–20 young, cultured journalists flourished as self-described "Bohemians" until the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
began in 1860. Similar groups in other cities were broken up as well—reporters spread out to report on the conflict. During the war, correspondents began to assume the title "Bohemian," and newspapermen in general took up the moniker. "Bohemian" became synonymous with "newspaper writer". In 1866, war correspondent Junius Henri Browne who wrote for the
New York TribuneThe New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
and
Harper's MagazineHarper's Magazine is a monthly, general-interest magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. It is the second-oldest, continuously-published monthly magazine in the U.S.; current circulation is more than 220,000 issues...
described as "Bohemian" journalists such as himself as well as the few carefree women and lighthearted men he encountered during the war years.
San Francisco journalist
Bret HarteFrancis Bret Harte was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.-Life and career:...
first wrote as "The Bohemian" in
The Golden Era in 1861, with this persona taking part in many satirical doings, the lot published in his book
Bohemian Papers in 1867. Harte wrote "Bohemia has never been located geographically, but any clear day when the sun is going down, if you mount
Telegraph HillTelegraph Hill refers to a small hilly district in San Francisco, California. Its main feature is Coit Tower, which stands atop the hill.-Location:...
, you shall see its pleasant valleys and cloud-capped hills glittering in the West..."
Mark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is extensively quoted...
included himself and
Charles Warren StoddardCharles Warren Stoddard was an American author.He was descended in a direct line from Anthony Stoddard of England, who settled at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1639. While he was still a child his parents moved to New York City, where they lived until 1855, when they migrated to San Francisco,...
in the Bohemian category in 1867. By 1872, when a group of journalists and artists who gathered regularly for cultural pursuits in San Francisco were casting about for a name, the term "Bohemian" became the main choice, and the
Bohemian ClubThe Bohemian Club is a prominent private men's club in San Francisco, California, United States.Its clubhouse is located at 624 Taylor Street in San Francisco...
was born. Club members who were established and successful, pillars of their community, respectable family men, redefined their own form of bohemianism to include people who were bons vivants, sportsmen, and appreciators of the
fine artFine art describes any art form developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than utility. This type of art is often expressed in the production of art objects using visual and performing art forms, including painting, sculpture, music, dance, theatre, architecture, photography and...
s. Club member and poet
George SterlingGeorge Sterling was an American poet based in California who, during his time, was celebrated in Northern California as one of the greatest American poets, although he never gained much fame in the rest of the United States....
responded to this redefinition:
Despite his views, Sterling associated very closely with the Bohemian Club, and caroused with artist and industrialist alike at the
Bohemian GroveBohemian Grove is a campground located at 20601 Bohemian Avenue, in Monte Rio, California, belonging to a private San Francisco-based men's art club known as the Bohemian Club...
.
The impish American writer and Bohemian Club member
Gelett BurgessFrank Gelett Burgess was an artist, art critic, poet, author, and humorist. He was born in Boston, and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B.S...
, who coined the word "blurb" among other things, supplied this description of the amorphous place called Bohemia:
In New York City, an organization of musicians was formed in 1907 by pianist
Rafael JoseffyRafael Joseffy was a Hungarian pianist and composer.-Life:His youth was spent in Miskolcz, and there, at the age of 8, he began his study of the piano....
with friends such as
Rubin GoldmarkRubin Goldmark was an American composer, pianist, and educator. He studied composition with Robert Fuchs at the Vienna Conservatory, and later with Antonín Dvořák at the National Conservatory in New York.Goldmark taught composition at the National Conservatory of New York and at the College...
, called the "The Bohemians (New York Musicians' Club)".
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 figures of the last 150 years belonged to the bohemian
countercultureCounterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition...
, and any comprehensive 'list of bohemians' would be tediously long. Bohemianism has been approved of by some
bourgeoisHistorically, the bourgeoisie were a social class of people, characterized by their ownership of capital and the related culture. They were a part of the middle or merchant classes of European feudalism, where their power came from employment, education, and wealth, as distinguished from those...
writers such as
Honoré de BalzacHonoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the fall of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1815.Due to his keen observation of detail...
, but most conservative cultural critics do not condone bohemian lifestyles.
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded in 1851 and published in New York City. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, "The Gray Lady"—named for its staid appearance and style—is regarded as a national newspaper of record...
columnistA columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating copy that can sometimes be strongly opinionated. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs on the Internet....
David BrooksDavid Brooks is an American political and cultural commentator. He is the author of Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There...
contends that much of the cultural ethos of upper-class Americans is Bohemian-derived, coining the paradoxical term "Bourgeois Bohemians" or "
BobosBobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class And How They Got There is a book by David Brooks, first published in 2000. The word bobo, Brooks's most famous coinage, is a portmanteau of the words bourgeois and bohemian. The term is used by Brooks to describe the 1990s descendants of the yuppies...
."
The Bombshell Manual of Style author, Laren Stover, breaks down the Bohemian into five distinct mind-sets/styles in
Bohemian ManifestoThe Bohemian Manifesto is a book written by Laren Stover and illustrated by IZAK. Subtitled, A Field Guide to Living on the Edge, it details the eccentricities, the peculiarities, and the informalities of being a Bohemian. Full of quotes and letters by famous Bohemian artists, it details the...
: a Field Guide to Living on the Edge. The Bohemian is "not easily classified like species of birds," writes Stover, noting that there are crossovers and hybrids. The five types are:
- Nouveau:- bohemians with money who attempt to join traditional bohemianism with contemporary culture
- Gypsy:- drifters, neo-hippies, and others with nostalgia for previous, romanticized eras
- Beat:- also drifters, but non-materialist and art-focused
- Zen:- "post-beat," focus on spirituality rather than art
- Dandy:- no money, but try to appear as if they have it by expensive or rare items - such as brands of alcohol
In the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the bohemian impulse can be seen in the 1960s
hippieThe hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the early 1960s and spread around the world. The word hippie derives from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district...
countercultureCounterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition...
(which was in turn informed by the
Beat generationThe Beat Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, and the cultural phenomena that they wrote about and inspired...
via writers such as
William S. BurroughsWilliam Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, essayist, social critic, painter and spoken word performer.Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, drawn from his experiences as an opiate addict, a condition that marked the last fifty years of his life...
,
Allen GinsbergIrwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet. Ginsberg is best known for the poem "Howl" , in which he celebrates fellow members of the Beat Generation and critiques what he saw as the destructive forces of materialism and conformity in the United States.-Early life and family:Ginsberg was born into...
, and
Jack KerouacJack Kerouac was an American author, poet and painter. Alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, he is considered a pioneer of the Beat Generation....
).
Rainbow GatheringRainbow Gatherings are temporary intentional communities, typically held in outdoor settings, and espousing and practicing ideals of peace, love, harmony, freedom and community, as a consciously expressed alternative to mainstream popular culture, consumerism, capitalism and mass media.Rainbow...
s may be seen as another contemporary worldwide expression of the bohemian impulse.
Bohemian communities in the past
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 neighborhoods came to be associated with bohemianism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries:
In Europe:
MontmartreMontmartre is a hill which is 130 meters high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18th arrondissement, a part of the Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit and as a nightclub district...
and
MontparnasseMontparnasse is an area of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred on the intersection of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes...
in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
;
ChelseaChelsea is an area of south-west London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe...
,
FitzroviaFitzrovia is an area of central London, near London's West End. It is a formally designated area lying partly in the London Borough of Camden and partly in the City of Westminster...
, and
SohoSoho is an area in the centre of the West End of London, England, in the City of Westminster. It is an entertainment district which for much of the later part of the 20th century had a reputation for its sex shops as well as its night life and film industry...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
;
SchwabingSchwabing is a borough in the northern part of Munich, the capital of the German state of Bavaria. It is divided into the city borough 4 and the city borough 12...
in
MunichMunich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg...
;
SkadarlijaSkadarlija is a vintage street, an urban neighborhood and former municipality of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia...
in
BelgradeBelgrade Belgrade Belgrade (Serbian Cyrillic: Београд, Serbian Latin: Beograd (meaning "White City" in Serbian) is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city lies on two international waterways, at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where Central Europe's Pannonian Plain meets...
;
TabánTabán is a district of Budapest, Hungary, to the south of György Dózsa Square, on the northern Buda side of Elisabeth Bridge to the east of Naphegy.- Maps :*Meyers Lexikon on the right:*Google-Maps Satellite - streets on the Map:...
in
BudapestBudapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it serves as the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation center and is considered an important hub in Central Europe. In 2009, Budapest had 1,712,210 inhabitants, down from a mid-1980s...
.
In the United States:
Greenwich VillageGreenwich Village , often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families. Greenwich Village, however, was known in the late 19th – earlier to mid 20th...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
.
See also
Related terms
- Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
- Art colony
An art colony or artists' colony is a place where creative practitioners live and interact with one another. Artists are often invited or selected through a formal process, for a residency from a few weeks to over a year...
- Bohemian style
In modern usage, the term "Bohemian" is applied to people who live unconventional, usually artistic, lives. The adherents of the "Bloomsbury Group", which formed around the Stephen sisters, Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf in the early 20th century, are among the best-known examples...
- Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition...
- Literary Kicks
Literary Kicks is a website that functions as a digital library of poetry and prose, biography and cultural criticism. LitKicks became well-known as a resource for news and information on the Beat Generation, including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Gregory Corso that was...
- Punk subculture
The punk subculture is a subculture based around punk rock. It includes music, ideologies, fashion, visual art, dance, literature and film. The punk scene is composed of an assortment of smaller factions that distinguish themselves from one another through unique variations...
- Simple living
Simple living is a lifestyle characterized by minimizing the "more is better" pursuit of wealth and consumption...
- Slumming
Slumming originally referred to a practice, fashionable among certain segments of the middle class in many Western countries, whereby one deliberately patronizes areas or establishments which are populated by, or intended for, people well below one's own socio-economic level, motivated by...
- Squatter
- Subculture
In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong...
Related cultures or movements
- Beat generation
The Beat Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, and the cultural phenomena that they wrote about and inspired...
- Beatnik
Beatnik, a media stereotype of the 1950s and early 1960s, was a synthesis of the more superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s into violent film images and a cartoonish misrepresentation of the real-life people and the spirituality found in Jack Kerouac's...
- Merry Pranksters
The Merry Pranksters were a group of people who formed around American author Ken Kesey in 1964 and sometimes lived communally at his homes in California and Oregon. The group promoted the use of psychedelic drugs...
- Dandy
A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of Self...
- Hipster
Hipster may refer to:*Hipster *Hipster *Hipster PDA, a paper-based personal organizer...
- Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the early 1960s and spread around the world. The word hippie derives from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district...
- Indie
- Punk
The punk subculture is a subculture based around punk rock. It includes music, ideologies, fashion, visual art, dance, literature and film. The punk scene is composed of an assortment of smaller factions that distinguish themselves from one another through unique variations...
- Diggers
The Diggers were a radical community-action group of Improv actors operating from 1966–68, based in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. Their politics were such that they have sometimes been categorized as "left-wing." More accurately, they were "community anarchists" who blended a...
External links