Bohemian but Not Anti-bourgeois

Abstract

This chapter draws on interview and observational data to offer an analysis of the various ways in which Fishtown/Kensington’s artistic community maintains a lifestyle that is consistent with characteristics closely associated with the bohemian tradition. Specifically, it details the ways in which this community has supported L’art pour l’art (‘art for art’s sake’), alternative artistic venues, low cost living within a relatively low-cost urban neighborhood, artistic discussions, and the use of artistic skills in DIY (Do-It-Yourself) projects. It also discusses the tendency of the community’s artists to deny that they or their community exhibits a bohemian lifestyle and argues that such denial is itself consistent with bohemian tradition. It then demonstrates (and highlights) that this artistic community has completely eschewed the anti-bourgeois antagonism that sparked the original bohemia, and that has been reinvented, in various ways, within classical, contemporary, and neo-bohemia. Finally, it maintains that this community has largely eschewed the grit as glamour orientation that has often constituted an important theme within contemporary research on bohemia.