ABSTRACT
The character of Don Quixote would not seem to rank among Kierkegaard’s most important literary figures and motifs. Indeed, over the course of his oeuvre, Kierkegaard scatters only a handful of references to Don Quixote-the creation of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616), whose world-famous novel, The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha, depicts Don Quixote as a zealous knight-errant in a epoch that regards his vocation as archaic and absurd. Moreover, Kierkegaard never uses Don Quixote as a pseudonym. While figures such as Johannes Climacus serve as noms de plume for Kierkegaard-their stories and insights doubling as the personification of certain world-views-Don Quixote does not take on this role in the Dane’s authorship.
