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Bohemia,
bordered on the North by hope, work, and gaiety,
on the South by necessity and courage; on the
West and East by slander and the hospital.
-Henry
Murger, Bohemian Life
Bohemians
had a long history as outsiders. Even before the
counterculture movement started in Paris,
Bohemians in the Habsburg Empire were considered
outcasts. Bohemians used their location in Paris
to their advantage, visiting cafes and watching
the bourgeoisie from the Latin Quarter and Montmartre.
Many choose to see Bohemia not as a place, but
as a state of mind.
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"Bohemiens"
is traditionally the French word for gypsies.
Bohemia, in the Hapsburg Empire, was home
to these nomadic people. When the young
French bourgeoisie adopted the term "Bohemians,"
it was out of defiance to the French government,
who disapproved of the gypsies.
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Bohemia
in the mid-1800's was located in the Latin
Quarter of Paris, on the Left Bank of the
Seine River. Later, many Bohemians moved
to Montmartre, another area of Paris, but
the Latin Quarter is still a gathering place
for students and artists to this day.
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Click on the map to see the neighborhoods
of bohemian Paris.
map
courtesy of www.mtholyoke.edu
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Bohemian
writers, artists, and thinkers gathered around
tables in Parisian
cafes to discuss the important issues of the
day. These cafes quickly became the center of
Bohemian life
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