Bohemianism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 19th century Parisian philosophy of life lived for art. In 1848 the young Parisian Henri Murger wrote of his bohemian friends: Their daily existence is a work of genius…they know how to practise abstinence with all the virtue of an anchorite, but if a slice of fortune falls into their hands you will see them at once mounted on the most ruinous fancies, loving the youngest and prettiest, drinking the oldest and best, and never finding sufficient windows to throw their money out of. Then, when their last crown is dead and buried…they go poaching on all the callings that have any connection with art, hunting from morn till night that wild beast called a five franc piece. Bohemianism meant a life lived for art, it meant sexual liberation and freedom from social constraint, but it also meant dodging the landlord and burning your poems to stay warm. How did the garret-philosophy of the Parisian Latin Quarter take over the drawing rooms of Bloomsbury and Chelsea, and why did a French war with necessity emerge as a British life-style as art?
Guests
- Hermione Lee
5 episodes
Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford -
Virginia Nicholson No other episodes
-
Graham Robb No other episodes
Related episodes
-
The Decadent Movement
18 Nov, 2021 820 English and Old English literatures -
Sartre
7 Oct, 2004 840 French and related literatures -
Existentialism
28 Jun, 2001 100 Philosophy -
Bohemia
11 Apr, 2002 940 History of Europe -
Germaine de Stael
16 Nov, 2017 840 French and related literatures -
William Morris
5 Jul, 2018 700 Arts -
Madame Bovary
12 Jul, 2007 840 French and related literatures -
Schopenhauer
29 Oct, 2009 190 Modern Western Philosophy -
Sturm und Drang
14 Oct, 2010 830 German and related literatures -
Bergson and Time
9 May, 2019 110 Metaphysics -
Surrealism
15 Nov, 2001 700 Arts -
Phenomenology
22 Jan, 2015 190 Modern Western Philosophy -
Cynicism
20 Oct, 2005 180 Ancient, medieval, and Eastern philosophy -
The Avant Garde’s Decline and Fall in the 20th Century
25 Feb, 1999 700 Arts -
Literary Modernism
26 Apr, 2001 820 English and Old English literatures -
The Baroque Movement
20 Nov, 2008 700 Arts -
Youth
24 Apr, 2003 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology -
The French Revolution’s Legacy
14 Jun, 2001 940 History of Europe -
Walter Benjamin
10 Feb, 2022 190 Modern Western Philosophy -
Taste
25 Oct, 2007 700 Arts
Programme ID: p005491s
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p005491s
Auto-category: 700 (Arts and Recreation)