It is suggested, in the Wikipedia entry, that the legend of Chauvin developed in the Bourbon Restoration and July Monarchy. Whether this was as a longing for the 'glory days' of the First Empire or as a form of anti-Bonapartism is open to question.
Chauvin was popularised in the 1831 in La Cocarde Tricolore, Episode De La Guerre D'Alger; Vaudeville En 3 Actes by brothers Charles-Theodore and Jean-Hippolyte Cogniard in which he was transformed into a patriot in the Algerian War. In more modern and into contemporary times Chauvin is known for the eponymous word that has come to be used to describe any form of excessive or aggressive patriotism or prejudice.
I have been thinking for some time of producing a blog with this title, so it was interesting to me that when I finally decide to do so it was not long after a short film 'about' Nicholas Chauvin had been released.
Le discours d'acceptation glorieux de Nicolas Chauvin (The Glorious Acceptance of Nicolas Chauvin) is described thus:
During an acceptance speech for a lifetime achievement award, Nicolas Chauvin—soldier-worker, a veteran of the First Army of the French Republic, of the Napoleonic Wars, and the father of the chauvinism that bears his name—launches into a great monologue and looks back at the story of his life. At a turning in the road, an encounter of a spectral nature shakes up his (non)existence (https://en.unifrance.org/movie/46341/the-glorious-acceptance-of-nicolas-chauvin).
Clearly an allegorical, even ironical film that is likely more about modern-day chauvinism in its broadest and nastiest forms than the supposed historical character. I am keen to see it, so I hope that it heads my way soon.
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