Although Lisbon is traditionally regarded as a peripheral city, in fact, by the end of the 19th century to the early 20th century, it participates in the cultural movements which then emerge. From the second half of the 19th century, the social and cultural phenomenon of bohemian begins to impose itself in the great European urban centers. At its origin, bohemia presents itself as an urban lifestyle that affirms a new artist’s identity, resulting from the mercantilization of society and art, with roots in the ideas of the French Revolution. With its rapidly growing popularity and dissemination, this phenomenon has evolved to a new practice of leisure, from which new spaces and practices of sociability arose, attracting a wider public and becoming part of a modern and urban way of living. This paper will examine how the city of Lisbon participates in the bohemian imaginary in the period 1840 to 1910 and how does it relates to trans-national bohemian models. With a different chronology and with clear adaptations to its local context, the bohemian ideals and practices are appropriate, readapted, re-read and implemented in Lisbon. I intend to explore some questions, such as: how the bohemian ideals and the new leisure practices they shaped were received in Lisbon? What was the role of writers, artists and performers, both Portuguese and foreign, in the spread of this phenomenon in Portugal? What impact had the circulation, translation and publication of some of the canonic bohemian works in the spread of the bohemian imaginary? How did international models (like the often cited French, English and German bohemian models) were adapted to the local context? How did the new bohemian practices relate to similar popular sociability practices? To what extent did bohemian Portuguese claim to participate in an international urban bohemian imaginary? And how these new models transform the social perception of bohemians and determine the re-interpretation of some local artistic and literary emblematic figures? Which new spaces, practices and forms of sociability emerged in Lisbon with the bohemia? How did this result in the redefinition of urban spaces and their use? From a vast and diverse set of documents, which include literary sources, memoirs, press and iconography, I shall seek to determine how and when was this new bohemian concept introduced in Lisbon, its actors, identities, practices, forms and sociability, relating this to the cultural influence of international bohemian models.

--

Cultural transmission; urban leisure; bohemianism; Lisbon