Bohemia - what is it? The meaning and history of the word

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:44

What associations do you have with the word "bohemia"? Is it an image and style of life, the name of an opera, or can this term refer to a certain group of people? In order to better understand the meaning of this word, you first need to plunge into history a little …

First there was "gypsyism"

First, as usual, there was a word, and the word was - "gypsy". This is how the translation from the French word "boheme" sounds. It all started with the fact that at the beginning of the 15th century, a free and cheerful tribe of gypsies arrived in Paris from the Austro-Hungarian town of Bohemia, hitherto unknown to the French. How did the gypsies live from ancient times?

These were nomadic tribes of free people, not constrained by the strict framework of social principles and rules familiar to European residents. The manners and customs of the new inhabitants made a great impression on the Parisians of that time. In addition, the gypsies were endowed with the ability for various kinds of arts: they sang beautifully, danced, and showed various tricks. In general, it was impossible to get bored with them.

Parisians called the eccentrics bohemia,the name of the area where they came from, and since then this definition has firmly settled in the languages of different peoples, denoting people of a free, nomadic lifestyle. But modern bohemia is by no means gypsies. What does this word mean now?

Composition by Henri Murger

And then it was like this: in 1851, a literary work by Henri Murger called "Scenes from the Life of Bohemia" was born in France. And the characters in this book were by no means gypsies, but young and poor inhabitants of the Latin Quarter: artists, actors, poets.

This creative youth is just as unsettled in everyday life as the gypsy tribe, they take the opposite position of the well-fed and primitive life of the French bourgeois. On the one hand, they are part of the working people, but on the other hand, they still cannot be in constant discord with the society of the rich.

Later on, based on the work of Henri Murger, Giacomo Puccini wrote the opera La bohème, which gained immense popularity all over the world. And later, the composer Imre Kalman, based on the plot of "Scenes from the Life of Bohemia", released the operetta "Violet of Montmartre". From now on, the meaning of the word "bohemian" has changed radically.

Modern interpretation of the word

But if we talk about the meaning of this word today, then bohemia is no longer a designation of only talented, but poor and unrecognized rebel artists. Today, this term is more commonly used when it comes to the mostfamous, rich and, at the same time, extraordinary representatives of various areas of contemporary art.

This is rather a kind of elite of our society: famous fashion designers, singers, film actors, directors, playwrights, artists, writers and poets. Their bohemian lifestyle gives rise to a lot of gossip and serves as a constant fuel for the most popular and scandalous publications in glossy magazines.

Russian bohemia

And now I would like to talk about the concept of "Russian bohemia". This expression refers to representatives of the creative intelligentsia of the Russian Silver Age. Their desire for creative freedom was the harbinger of the coming revolution. Here are some of the most prominent representatives of Russian bohemia: Sergei Yesenin, Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva, Maximilian Voloshin, Valentin Serov, Konstantin Korovin, Valery Bryusov, Vera Khlebnikova, etc.

In the pre-revolutionary years, these were still very young people, striving to create various creative unions. They were looking for new forms of expression and firmly believed that the revolution would help create a new, free man. Subsequently, they all had to endure great disappointment, as the illusions turned out to be unrealizable.