From Love to Melancholy

Abstract

The Black bohemian is a largely overlooked character in both “Black” and White Hollywood despite an established subculture that has existed for years. This article looks at how Black American bohemian identity in two independent love films has evolved from the segregated world of Generation-X in Love Jones to the integrated world of two young millennial Black bohemians in Medicine for Melancholy. Using the markers of culture, space, and politics, this article posits that while we can read major superficial changes in the way Black bohemian identity has evolved between Generation-X and Generation-Y using these two films, on a fundamental level, Hollywood has not changed in its depictions of alternative Black life and love and continues to rely on the cliché tropes of a monolithic Black identity.