Bouzingo
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| - | The '''Bouzingo''' was a [[19th century avant-garde]] movement, a group of eccentric poets, novelists, and artists in France during the 1830s that practiced an extreme form of [[romanticism]] whose influence helped determine the course of culture in the 19th century with their art riots, [[roman frénétique|romans frénétiques]] and [[fantastique|contes fantastiques]]. Especially well documented is the battle that surrounded the premiere of Victor Hugo's play ''[[Hernani (drama)|Hernani]]''. | + | The '''Bouzingo''' was the name given to a group of minor Romantic poets, novelists, and artists active in France during the [[1830s]]. They were associated with the ''[[Petit cénacle]]'' and the ''[[Jeune-France]]'' and were given an tremendous amount of attention in the contemporary press, which was at that time in the early stages of becoming a [[mass media|mass medium]]. Its members were [[Petrus Borel]], [[Gérard de Nerval]], [[Théophile Gautier]], [[Philothée O'Neddy]], [[Xavier Forneret]] and [[Aloysius Bertrand]]. |
| - | == Overview == | + | Their history is told in great detail in the [[doctoral thesis]] ''[[Pétrus Borel: Background, Reception and Interpretation]]'' (1999) by Erik S. Bovee: |
| - | Bouzingoism is the spirit of revolution, a revolution against the ascendancy of power by the philistine [[bourgeoisie]]. This spirit was embodied in the “[[art for art’s sake]]” creed of [[Théophile Gautier]], in the eccentricities and the poetry of [[Gérard de Nerval]], by the lycanthropy and dark irony of [[Petrus Borel]], and by those who gathered around them known as the Bouzingo. They were a [[decadent]] and [[radical]] offshoot of [[Romanticism]] and represented an unabashed taste for vampirism, shocking offenses, and self-styled Satanism. They considered themselves a thorn in the side of the bourgeoisie meant to aggravate and irritate polite society. They roamed the streets making a scene wherever they went. They had long hair and grew moustaches and beards. They dressed with an air of ironic aristocracy to spite and mock the bourgeoisie. They were fanatical extremists who delved heavily in the occult, black humor, dream/nightmare, and imagination inspired by [[Cervantes]] from Spain, [[Schiller]] and [[Goethe]] from Germany, [[Lord Byron]] and [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|Shelley]] (the “satanic poets” of English Romanticism), and [[Emanuel Swedenborg]] (the 18th century Swedish occultist). They experimented with drugs and took their Romantic idealism to extremes. Although the Bouzingos have been obscured in the history of Literature and Art, there is no disputing their invaluable influence in the construction of Modernism. Credit to the Bouzingos can be found in writings from [[Baudelaire]] to the [[Surrealists]] and are credited to the origins of the [[avant-garde]]. | + | |
| + | :"[[Petrus Borel]] was a minor, French Romantic author who was involved with a small group of artists, the '[[Petit cénacle]]', writing and working in early 1830s Paris. They styled themselves on the more famous '[[Cénacle]]', but were more than imitators of the great names of the Romantic movemement. Members of the 'Petit cénacle', which included the young Gautier and Nerval, took their cues from the major figures of the movement, but often pushed the enthusiasm for aesthetic reform, the colorful exoticism and the rebelliousness of Romanticism far beyond what the major figures were willing to attempt. The 'Petit cénacle' became associated in the mind of the public with a small number of groups of political and artistic [[militant]]s, whose period of greatest activity coincided with the upheaval in the few years following the [[July Revolution]], and with the Romantic battles in the theatre. Borel's group was often confused with the ''[[bouzingo|bousingos]]'', a species of young political conspirator, and was at times synonymous with the ''[[Jeune-France|jeunes-France]]'', young men whose Romantic and medievalist literary pretensions were often nuanced with Utopian socialism or [[republicanism]]." | ||
| == Etymology and origins == | == Etymology and origins == | ||
| - | The name Bouzingo is a deliberate alternative spelling of the word Bousingots. | + | "The bousingo was the subject of twelve articles running in the [[Le Figaro]], beginning in February 1832, and ending in February of 1833." (''[[Pétrus Borel: Background, Reception and Interpretation]]'', Erik S. Bovee). |
| - | [[Victor Hugo]] wrote of the bousingots in ''[[Les Misérables]]'' and [[George Sand]] in her novel [[Horace]] based the main character of these political youth. | + | An early English language description of the movement can be found in ''[[Vie de Bohème, A Patch of Romantic Paris]]'': |
| - | The Bouzingo were originally known as [[Le Petit Cénacle]] in 1830 but became known as [[Les Jeunes-France]] around 1832. The name Bouzingo came into being in 1833. One summer night, members of [[Les Jeunes-France]] were walking through the streets loudly singing a song whose chorus was "Nous avons fait ou Nous ferons du bouzingo". The neighbors complained of the shouting to the police and told them of a conspiracy by the bousingots against [[King Louis-Philippe]]. The Police, who were unable to tell the difference between the Bousingots and Les Jeunes-France, arrested several members including [[Nerval]]. The next day newspapers were filled with scandalous stories about these nefarious bousingots! Gautier and Nerval found the stories to be hilarious and decided to continue the scandal by taking the name Bouzingo and changing the spelling to confuse the Bourgeoisie. They immediately set out to publish a book called “Les Contes du Bouzingo”. Unfortunately it was never published, but the Bouzingo myth stuck and remains to this day. | + | :The origin of the term Bousingot has been a matter of dispute among French writers. [[Philibert Audebrand]] in his memoir of [[Léon Gozlan]] says it was invented by that brilliant journalist to satirize the young republican enthusiasts of 1832 in the [[Le Figaro|Figaro]]. [[Charles Asselineau]] in his "[[Bibliographie Romantique]]" says that after some hilarious souls had been arrested for singing too loudly in the streets "Nous avons fait du bousingo"—bousingo being the slang for "noise"—it became a popular designation for the more furious Romantics. The matter seems to be settled more or less in Asselineau's manner by a passage in the letter written by Philothée O'Neddy to Asselineau after the publication of the "Bibliographie Romantique" to give a more correct account of the second cénacle. |
| - | == Legacy == | + | Baudelaire also mentions the bouzingo in passing. Baudelaire, in ''[[L'Art romantique]]'', says of him:: |
| - | The stories the Bouzingo wrote about themselves were full of intentional exaggerations. The stories were meant to frighten the bourgeoisie. They believed the Bourgeois would be offended by the idea of poets and artists acting like barbarians and primitives. This was the aim of the Bouzingo and for a time they spawned major controversies. The actual truth is now nearly impossible to find out. These artists were not well documented with any kind of journalistic objectivity during their prime. The legends of the Bouzingo are captured most notably by [[Gautier]] in “[[Les Jeunes-France]]” (1833) but also to a lesser extent in Henry Murger's "[[La Vie de Bohème]]" (1849). | + | |
| - | ===Truth or myth?=== | + | :"Without Pétrus Borel, there would have been a lacuna in Romanticism. In the first phase of our literary revolution the poet's imagination turned especially to the past.... Later on its melancholy took a more decided, more savage, and more earthy tone. A misanthropical republicanism allied itself with the new school, and Pétrus Borel was the most extravagant and paradoxical expression of the spirit of the '''Bousingots'''.... This spirit, both literary and republican, as opposed to the democratic and bourgeois passion which subsequently oppressed us so cruelly, was moved both by an aristocratic hate, without limit, without restriction, without pity, for kings and the bourgeoisie, and by a general sympathy for all that in art represented excess in colour and form, for all that was at once intense, pessimistic, and [[Byronic]]; it was dilettantism of a singular nature, only to be explained by the hateful circumstances in which our bored and turbulent youth was enclosed. If the Restoration had regularly developed in glory, Romanticism would have never separated from the throne; and this new sect, which professed an equal disdain for the moderate party of the political opposition, for the painting of [[Delaroche]] or the poetry of [[Delavigne]], and for the king who presided over the development of ''[[le juste-milieu]]'', would have had no reason for existing." --tr. via ''[[Vie de Bohème, A Patch of Romantic Paris]]'' |
| - | These are a few of the most famous exaggerations invented by the Bouzingo: | + | |
| - | *They hosted parties where clothes were banned and wine was drunk from human skulls. | + | |
| - | *They played instruments that they did not know how to play on street corners. | + | |
| - | *Nerval was said to have walked a pet lobster on a leash because “it does not bark and knows the secrets of the sea”. | + | |
| + | ==Battle of Hernani== | ||
| + | Especially well documented is [[The Battle of Hernani]], the battle that surrounded the premiere of Victor Hugo's play ''[[Hernani (drama)|Hernani]]''. Both Borel and Gautier played major roles in the organisation of the ''claque'' for the premiere of Hernani. (Bovee, 1999) | ||
| == Legacy == | == Legacy == | ||
| - | [[André Breton]] mentioned the influence of [[Nerval]] in the first Surrealist Manifesto. He also included [[Petrus Borel]] and [[Xavier Forneret]] in his influential "Anthology of Black Humor". | + | ===19th century=== |
| + | [[Victor Hugo]] wrote of the bousingots in ''[[Les Misérables]]'' (1862, "I am not Jacobin, sir, I am not a bousingot") and [[George Sand]] in her novel ''[[Horace (George Sand)|Horace]]'' ("On les appelait alors les ''bousingots'', à cause du chapeau marin de cuir verni qu'ils avaient adopté pour signe de ralliement") based the main character of these political youth. | ||
| - | André Breton wrote, "To be even fairer, we could probably have taken over the word SUPERNATURALISM employed by Gérard de Nerval in his dedication to the [[Filles de feu]]... It appears, in fact, that Nerval possessed to a tee the spirit with which we claim a kinship..." - The Surrealist Manifesto, 1924 | + | === 20th century === |
| + | [[André Breton]] mentioned the influence of [[Nerval]] (and his mention of ''[[supernaturalism]]'' in the dedication to ''[[Les Filles du feu]]'') in the first [[Surrealist Manifesto]]. He also included [[Petrus Borel]] and [[Xavier Forneret]] in his influential "[[Anthology of Black Humor]]". | ||
| - | [[Italo Calvino]] included [[Petrus Borel]] and [[Gérard de Nerval]] in his anthology of "[[Fantastic Tales]]". ''[[La Main de gloire]]'' by Gérard de Nerval was a story intended to be published in the "[[Contes du Bouzingo]]". | + | [[Italo Calvino]] included ''[[La Main de gloire]]'' by [[Gérard de Nerval]] in his anthology of "[[Fantastic Tales]]". |
| - | [[Marcel Proust]], [[Joseph Cornell]], [[René Daumal]], and [[T.S. Eliot]] have all cited Gérard de Nerval as a major influence. [[T.S. Eliot]]'s "The Wasteland" borrowed one of its most enigmatic lines from Nerval's "[[El Desdichado]]". | + | [[Marcel Proust]], [[Joseph Cornell]], [[René Daumal]], and [[T.S. Eliot]] have all cited Gérard de Nerval as a major influence. [[T.S. Eliot]]'s "[[The Wasteland]]" borrowed one of its most enigmatic lines from Nerval's "[[El Desdichado]]". |
| - | [[Oscar Wilde]], [[Joris-Karl Huysmans]], and [[Lautréamont]] have all mentioned the works of Gautier as influential. His thoughts on the philosophy of "Art for Art's Sake" have continued to be the source of debate. | + | [[Oscar Wilde]], [[Joris-Karl Huysmans]], and [[Lautréamont]] have all mentioned the works of Gautier as influential. His thoughts on the philosophy of "[[art for art's sake]]" have continued to be the source of debate. |
| Gautier with Nerval and Baudelaire began the infamous [[Club des Hashischins]] dedicated to exploring experiences with drugs. | Gautier with Nerval and Baudelaire began the infamous [[Club des Hashischins]] dedicated to exploring experiences with drugs. | ||
| - | == Members of the Bouzingo == | + | ===Truth or myth?=== |
| - | *[[Gérard de Nerval]] | + | These are a few of the most famous exaggerations invented by the Bouzingo or their detractors: |
| - | *[[Petrus Borel]] "the Lycanthrope" | + | *They hosted parties where clothes were banned and wine was drunk from human skulls. |
| - | *[[Théophile Gautier]] | + | *They played instruments that they did not know how to play on street corners. |
| - | *[[Philothée O'Neddy]] | + | *Nerval was said to have walked a [[pet lobster on a leash]] because “it does not bark and knows the secrets of the sea”. |
| - | *[[Xavier Forneret]] | + | |
| - | *[[Aloysius Bertrand]] | + | |
| == Further reading== | == Further reading== | ||
| - | *Dumont, Francis, 1958. ''[[Nerval et les Bousingots]]'' (La Table ronde) | + | *Dumont, Francis, 1958. ''[[Nerval et les Bousingots]]'' ([[Éditions de la Table ronde|La Table ronde]]) |
| *Dumont, Francis, 1949 ''Les Petits Romantiques Francais'' (Les Cahiers Du Sud) | *Dumont, Francis, 1949 ''Les Petits Romantiques Francais'' (Les Cahiers Du Sud) | ||
| - | *Seigel, Jerrold, 1986. ''Bohemian Paris: Culture , Politics, and the Boundaries of Bourgeois Life, 1830-1930''. (Elizabeth Sifton Books) | + | *[[Jerrold Seigel|Seigel, Jerrold]], 1986. ''[[Bohemian Paris: Culture , Politics, and the Boundaries of Bourgeois Life, 1830-1930]]''. (Elizabeth Sifton Books) |
| *Starkie, Enid, 1954. ''Petrus Borel: The Lycanthrope, His Life and Times''. (Faber and Faber Ltd.) | *Starkie, Enid, 1954. ''Petrus Borel: The Lycanthrope, His Life and Times''. (Faber and Faber Ltd.) | ||
| *André Breton, 1997. ''Anthology of Black Humor''. (City Lights Publishers) ISBN 0-87286-321-2 | *André Breton, 1997. ''Anthology of Black Humor''. (City Lights Publishers) ISBN 0-87286-321-2 | ||
| Line 52: | Line 50: | ||
| *''[[On Bohemia]]'' by [[César Graña]], Marigay Grana, 1990 - Chapter: Bouzingos and Jeunes-France pp. 365-369 | *''[[On Bohemia]]'' by [[César Graña]], Marigay Grana, 1990 - Chapter: Bouzingos and Jeunes-France pp. 365-369 | ||
| *Lettre inédite de Philothée O'Neddy [pseud.] auteur de: Feu et flamme, sur le groupe littérai...by Théophile Dondey, 1875 | *Lettre inédite de Philothée O'Neddy [pseud.] auteur de: Feu et flamme, sur le groupe littérai...by Théophile Dondey, 1875 | ||
| + | ==See also== | ||
| + | *[[Roman frénétique]] | ||
| + | *[[Conte fantastique]] | ||
| + | *[[French avant-garde]] | ||
| + | *[[French Romanticism]] | ||
| {{GFDL}} | {{GFDL}} | ||
Current revision
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Featured: |
The Bouzingo was the name given to a group of minor Romantic poets, novelists, and artists active in France during the 1830s. They were associated with the Petit cénacle and the Jeune-France and were given an tremendous amount of attention in the contemporary press, which was at that time in the early stages of becoming a mass medium. Its members were Petrus Borel, Gérard de Nerval, Théophile Gautier, Philothée O'Neddy, Xavier Forneret and Aloysius Bertrand.
Their history is told in great detail in the doctoral thesis Pétrus Borel: Background, Reception and Interpretation (1999) by Erik S. Bovee:
- "Petrus Borel was a minor, French Romantic author who was involved with a small group of artists, the 'Petit cénacle', writing and working in early 1830s Paris. They styled themselves on the more famous 'Cénacle', but were more than imitators of the great names of the Romantic movemement. Members of the 'Petit cénacle', which included the young Gautier and Nerval, took their cues from the major figures of the movement, but often pushed the enthusiasm for aesthetic reform, the colorful exoticism and the rebelliousness of Romanticism far beyond what the major figures were willing to attempt. The 'Petit cénacle' became associated in the mind of the public with a small number of groups of political and artistic militants, whose period of greatest activity coincided with the upheaval in the few years following the July Revolution, and with the Romantic battles in the theatre. Borel's group was often confused with the bousingos, a species of young political conspirator, and was at times synonymous with the jeunes-France, young men whose Romantic and medievalist literary pretensions were often nuanced with Utopian socialism or republicanism."
Contents |
[edit]
Etymology and origins
"The bousingo was the subject of twelve articles running in the Le Figaro, beginning in February 1832, and ending in February of 1833." (Pétrus Borel: Background, Reception and Interpretation, Erik S. Bovee).
An early English language description of the movement can be found in Vie de Bohème, A Patch of Romantic Paris:
- The origin of the term Bousingot has been a matter of dispute among French writers. Philibert Audebrand in his memoir of Léon Gozlan says it was invented by that brilliant journalist to satirize the young republican enthusiasts of 1832 in the Figaro. Charles Asselineau in his "Bibliographie Romantique" says that after some hilarious souls had been arrested for singing too loudly in the streets "Nous avons fait du bousingo"—bousingo being the slang for "noise"—it became a popular designation for the more furious Romantics. The matter seems to be settled more or less in Asselineau's manner by a passage in the letter written by Philothée O'Neddy to Asselineau after the publication of the "Bibliographie Romantique" to give a more correct account of the second cénacle.
Baudelaire also mentions the bouzingo in passing. Baudelaire, in L'Art romantique, says of him::
- "Without Pétrus Borel, there would have been a lacuna in Romanticism. In the first phase of our literary revolution the poet's imagination turned especially to the past.... Later on its melancholy took a more decided, more savage, and more earthy tone. A misanthropical republicanism allied itself with the new school, and Pétrus Borel was the most extravagant and paradoxical expression of the spirit of the Bousingots.... This spirit, both literary and republican, as opposed to the democratic and bourgeois passion which subsequently oppressed us so cruelly, was moved both by an aristocratic hate, without limit, without restriction, without pity, for kings and the bourgeoisie, and by a general sympathy for all that in art represented excess in colour and form, for all that was at once intense, pessimistic, and Byronic; it was dilettantism of a singular nature, only to be explained by the hateful circumstances in which our bored and turbulent youth was enclosed. If the Restoration had regularly developed in glory, Romanticism would have never separated from the throne; and this new sect, which professed an equal disdain for the moderate party of the political opposition, for the painting of Delaroche or the poetry of Delavigne, and for the king who presided over the development of le juste-milieu, would have had no reason for existing." --tr. via Vie de Bohème, A Patch of Romantic Paris
[edit]
Battle of Hernani
Especially well documented is The Battle of Hernani, the battle that surrounded the premiere of Victor Hugo's play Hernani. Both Borel and Gautier played major roles in the organisation of the claque for the premiere of Hernani. (Bovee, 1999)
[edit]
Legacy
[edit]
19th century
Victor Hugo wrote of the bousingots in Les Misérables (1862, "I am not Jacobin, sir, I am not a bousingot") and George Sand in her novel Horace ("On les appelait alors les bousingots, à cause du chapeau marin de cuir verni qu'ils avaient adopté pour signe de ralliement") based the main character of these political youth.
[edit]
20th century
André Breton mentioned the influence of Nerval (and his mention of supernaturalism in the dedication to Les Filles du feu) in the first Surrealist Manifesto. He also included Petrus Borel and Xavier Forneret in his influential "Anthology of Black Humor".
Italo Calvino included La Main de gloire by Gérard de Nerval in his anthology of "Fantastic Tales".
Marcel Proust, Joseph Cornell, René Daumal, and T.S. Eliot have all cited Gérard de Nerval as a major influence. T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" borrowed one of its most enigmatic lines from Nerval's "El Desdichado".
Oscar Wilde, Joris-Karl Huysmans, and Lautréamont have all mentioned the works of Gautier as influential. His thoughts on the philosophy of "art for art's sake" have continued to be the source of debate.
Gautier with Nerval and Baudelaire began the infamous Club des Hashischins dedicated to exploring experiences with drugs.
[edit]
Truth or myth?
These are a few of the most famous exaggerations invented by the Bouzingo or their detractors:
- They hosted parties where clothes were banned and wine was drunk from human skulls.
- They played instruments that they did not know how to play on street corners.
- Nerval was said to have walked a pet lobster on a leash because “it does not bark and knows the secrets of the sea”.
[edit]
Further reading
- Dumont, Francis, 1958. Nerval et les Bousingots (La Table ronde)
- Dumont, Francis, 1949 Les Petits Romantiques Francais (Les Cahiers Du Sud)
- Seigel, Jerrold, 1986. Bohemian Paris: Culture , Politics, and the Boundaries of Bourgeois Life, 1830-1930. (Elizabeth Sifton Books)
- Starkie, Enid, 1954. Petrus Borel: The Lycanthrope, His Life and Times. (Faber and Faber Ltd.)
- André Breton, 1997. Anthology of Black Humor. (City Lights Publishers) ISBN 0-87286-321-2
- Italo Calvino, 1998. Fantastic Tales. (Vintage) ISBN 0-679-75544-6
- Mélanges tirés d'une petite bibliothèque romantique: bibliographie anecdotique et pittoresque...by Charles Asselineau, Théodore Faullain de Banville, Charles Baudelaire, 1866.
- On Bohemia by César Graña, Marigay Grana, 1990 - Chapter: Bouzingos and Jeunes-France pp. 365-369
- Lettre inédite de Philothée O'Neddy [pseud.] auteur de: Feu et flamme, sur le groupe littérai...by Théophile Dondey, 1875
[edit]
See also
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Bouzingo" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
