This article reports the pedagogical experience in Theory of Literature conducted by the author in the undergraduate course of Letters at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) during his doctorate in Literary Studies at the same institution. This experience, here converted into an object of theoretical reflection, entails a renewed comprehension of the critical act at stake in the reading/evaluation of literary texts, as well as the proposition of a literary pedagogy called here - under the inspiration of the Hans Vaihinger's classical book, Die Philosophie des Als Ob [The philosophy of as if] - "Pedagogy of As If".
Theory of Literature; Literary Criticism; Teaching of Literature; Pedagogy of "As If"