Warming up la Bohème

From Murger’s Scenes de la vie de Bohème (1851) to Puccini’s adaptation (1896), the cold prevailing in the painters’ studio emerges as a recurrent motif in representations of the Bohemian artists’ lifestyle. Their ability to endure harsh living conditions for the sake of their art constitutes a key element in the idealization they underwent during the second half of the nineteenth century. Examining the role of temperature and its perception in the social constructions of this artistic way of life sheds light not only on the material culture of the period – particularly in relation to heating technologies – but also on the social implications of domestic comfort, studio practices, and conceptions of the artist’s life. The study of temperature and its perception highlights the porous boundary between the narratives that shaped the myth of the artistic bohème and the social realities experienced by artists in the mid-nineteenth century. It also reveals the role that this shared sensory experience may have played in the construction and idealization of this marginal group, in contrast to the bourgeois social class

Climate change · Global warming · Heat wave · Urban heat island · French Literature and Criticism · French Literature and Poetry · Literature and Culture Studies