Bohemianism

Bohemianism is a social and cultural movement that has, at its core, a way of life away from society's conventional norms and expectations. The term originates from the French bohème and spread to the English-speaking world. It was used to describe mid-19th-century non-traditional lifestyles, especially of artists, writers, journalists, musicians, and actors in major European cities.

Bohemian is a 19th-century historical and literary topos that places the milieu of young metropolitan artists and intellectuals—particularly those of the Latin Quarter in Paris—in a context of poverty, hunger, appreciation of friendship, idealization of art and contempt for money. Based on this topos, the most diverse real-world subcultures are often referred to as "bohemian" in a figurative sense, especially (but by no means exclusively) if they show traits of a precariat.

Bohemians were associated with unorthodox or anti-establishment political or social viewpoints expressed through free love, frugality, and—in some cases—simple living, van dwelling or voluntary poverty. A more economically privileged, wealthy, or even aristocratic bohemian circle is sometimes referred to as haute bohème^[1] (literally "Upper Bohemian").^[2]

The term bohemianism emerged in France in the early 19th century out of perceived similarities between the urban Bohemians and the Romani people; La bohème was a common term for the Romani people of France, who were thought to have reached France in the 15th century via Bohemia (the western part of modern Czech Republic).^[3] Bohemianism and its adjective bohemian in this specific context are not connected to the native inhabitants of the historical region of Bohemia (the Czechs).^[4]