Shipwreck and Intellectual Adventure: Significant Parallelisms between El Criticón and Robinson Crusoe

Abstract

This paper studies the relation between the shipwreck motif and the language acquisition process in Baltasar Gracián’s El Criticón and Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. The argument is that the shipwreck constitutes one core of the story that promotes the development of the intellectual adventure. The analysis of the parallelisms between these texts focused on four elements—the edifying intention in both works, the treatment of the shipwreck, the characters meeting, and the language acquisition process—reveals a unique conception of adventure in which the intellectual component is relevant for the development of the confrontation between the characters and their realities. This study proposes a reflection about the inquisitiveness of these authors regarding knowledge as a part of literary adventure.