The Way of the Croissant: Traditional Perspectives On A Traditional Pastry
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Abstract
This investigation draws on concepts that have shaped the discipline of folklore since its inception to exact a fresh encounter with a transnationally popular item of Viennoiserie: the crescent-shaped pastry known as the croissant. Their application to this ephemeral foodways item sheds light on the croissant’s roots, dissemination, and distinct permutations. I discuss the origins of the pastry in the light of historic-geographic methodologies; its diffusion and evolution with reference to scholarship on tradition bearers, oikotypification, intertextuality and the role of the individual in perpetuating a tradition; and matters of its commodification and authenticity through consideration of how tradition functions in the modern age. Finally, through an autoethnographic approach, I draw on personal experience to consider one way in which croissant consumption may be traditionalized.
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