ABSTRACT
Bohemia has received considerable attention in recent years, in both scholarly works and entertainments directed at high-and middlebrow consumers, with major revivals of La Bohème,1 the success of the Broadway musical Rent, an Academy Award nomination for Baz Luhrmann’s film musical Moulin Rouge, and the release of smaller films including Joe Gould’s Secret and Beat. This should not surprise us; as Wendy Griswold argues, revivals say as much about the contemporary period as they do the past.2 Examining Wicker Park illuminates why fantasies of la vie bohème resonate with contemporary cosmopolitan audiences, if not with some mythical mass culture. This contemporary district in Chicago updates many of the thematic principles of classic bohemia; indeed, participants often make explicit recourse to past bohemian examples in their contemporary designs for living. Nor is the Wicker Park case eccentric; similar districts have become more frequent, more visible, and more important to understanding the culture and economy of contemporary cities around the United States.
