Trouble with Studying English Literature

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I've always wanted to be a writer, but maybe one of the things that convinced me to study something other than English that I feel dense reading some literature. I'm taking a few English classes now and I really appreciate going to the course so that at least the professor can explain to me what the other really meant.

Does anyone else have trouble reading between the lines of what an author says in literary writing? How to you approach a class discussion about the deep meaning of a novel? Is there value for aspiring-writer aspies to study literature, or should we just stick to reading and writing genre fiction (which tells it the way it is, and follows more of a predictable formula)?

Interesting questions.
My undergraduate major was creative writing (because it had a slightly lighter class load) and I had to take a lot of literature courses. I used a dictionary a lot, especially for poems, to make sure I knew any less common meanings of words. And I read commentaries on writers that I liked. I'm usually clueless when confronted by something new, but as I learned about more literature, I applied patterns of approaching it--which I picked up from the commentaries and class discussions--to new works. That seemed to pay off gradewise (and on a standardized test given to all undergrads), but I completed my degree with the feeling that I really couldn't get to the heart of any work, really couldn't read between the lines except in a very mechanical way--though better than most NT's in my class! Curiosity can carry one a long way.

I'm not sure what you mean by "genre fiction," since it's all in some genre. Are you hinting at writing erotic stories?

I avoid writing now. I think I only feel comfortable answering your question because I have experience in that situation, this is generally a friendly space, and I've been drinking.

I considered studying literature when I was a teenager, but when I found out in my country literature degrees were more about counting adverbs than anything truly literary, and the lack of jobs other than as a schoolteacher, etc, I decided not to. Now I'm doing chemistry, of all things (don't ask).

Olde English (as I think they call it) is hard because nobody talks that way anymore.
Dis thou knowest what I meaneth?
Something like that anyway.

Genre fiction = romance, mystery, thriller, sci-fi, horror. Plot-driven stories. ie, bestsellers.
Literary fiction = character-driven stories, the kind that can often be boring but get studied in schools and win awards.

I want to write genre fiction but I also want to understand literature better because I most admire the writers who CAN write literary fiction but CHOOSE to write stories that appeal to a wide audience (rather than those who write in one category because they're incapable of writing anything else).

I already have two practical degrees (and btw, neither got me very far professionally). Now I take a few creative writing and English lit classes every year in attempt to improve my writing "hobby", with the aspiration that some day I can turn this hobby into a significant source of income. I'm a good writer and I can get good marks in English class perhaps because I'm capable of writing good essays, but during writing workshops or seminar discussions in English class, I feel like the whole class understands the story on a different level than I do. Maybe it is just a matter of learning the patterns and the jargon of literary dissection in order to get the most out of a class like this? Too bad most universities around here don't offer a lot of theory on rhetoric and analysis any more. Guess I'll have to teach it to myself by paying closer attention to the types of things my professors and peers tend to comment on.

I feel your pain. I am in an english class that has "core assignments" (work you must pass in order to pass the class). I have had trouble on a paper i turned in. Just because it was missing a few sources, he made me redo it. Others weren't so lucky. They had to write a whole other report, outline, and cited work page of a book all over again.