Trabalhos de amor perdidos, trabalhos de crítica e teoria encontrados

um romance-tese?

Abstract

This article analyzes Trabalhos de amor perdidos (2006), a novel by Jorge Furtado that parodies Shakespeare’s homonymous comedy, focusing on the interplay between fictional, theoretical, and critical discourses, as well as its didactic potential in engaging with William Shakespeare and his oeuvre. Drawing on the notion of theoretical-critical (meta)fiction, the discussion explores how the text employs strategies typically associated with academic writing – such as footnotes, bibliography, and analytical reflections – alongside literary techniques that offer a renewed interpretation of Shakespeare. It argues that this intertwining of theoretical-critical discourses and didactic impulses broadens the scope of fiction, proposing new pathways for literary literacy among contemporary Brazilian readers. Thus, Trabalhos de amor perdidos foregrounds the hybrid nature of literary creation, theory, and criticism, establishing itself as a “critical-theoretical-fictional labour of love” that generates new interpretive possibilities. Ultimately, although it is not an academic thesis in the strict sense, the novel challenges conventional boundaries between art and academia, presenting a hybrid literary form that merges fiction and critical reflection.