Хляб и пасти (културният срещу историческия факт)
Bread and Pastries (The Cultural vs. the Historical Fact)

Summary/Abstract: The famous phrase “If there is no bread, let them eat pastries (brioche)”, ascribed to Marie Antoinette, the wife of King Louis XVI, is perceived as an incarnation of the superior and arrogant attitude of the French elite towards common people at the eve of the French Revolution in 1789. The paper disputes the historical truth of this statement, referring to Rousseau’s Confessions. Its main focus however is not the search of the historical truth, but the contextual interpretation of the phrase, keeping in mind the cultural history of food and philosophical-ideological arguments for linking different types of food to the status of various social groups in that period. In light of such interpretation, the phrase about bread and pastries acquires a new revolutionary meaning related to the ideas of equality and equal rights, to the struggle against status privileges, being an expression of the spirit of the French Revolution.

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