Gammer, was your teacher a graduate student (MFA student)? His (her?) comments sound like those of someone young, over-compensating for inexperience, with an over-inflated sense of himself as some kind of writing guru. If he's a seasoned member of faculty, well then, just... *shudder*. There's no hope for him. Regardless, my question for him is: "Who do you think you are? The art fairy? By the power invested in you by the State of Up-My-Own-A$$ you're able to pronounce someone 'artist'?". Seriously, at the very least this is terrible pedagogy. Yes, as some have pointed out, there is always something to be learned/gained by stretching yourself, but the "artist" comment shows your teacher's true colors and they're not pretty. Take what you can from the readings and exercises but ignore his value judgments. I spend most of my time these days in musical circles and have heard many stories from very successful musicians about teachers who told them they were unmusical or that they shouldn't even try to learn an instrument. Fortunately, these friends' love of music was stronger than any discouragement they were handed. They persevered. So should you.
I'm not an artist, I'm not a great writer, I want to communicate fun stories -- nothing more. A good portion of literary fiction written since the 1950s is dull - it has concentrated so hard on being clever that is has forgotten to include a plot. There are exceptions for me like Toni Morrison, David Mitchell, Lynne Reid Banks. The odd depressing book is fine. I really don't understand it, whatever I think of Thomas Hardy his stories had good plots (OK it feels like reading a train crash happening lol). Dickens, Austen even Shakespeare were popular writers in their respective times. Like someone above said though be aware of it so you can use the good elements of literary fiction in your stories. Personally, I love Kathy Reichs and even find the DaVinci Code a good romp to read. Enid Blyton is my favourite ever writer. A great genre writer tends to do what a great literary fiction writer tends not to -- their work is magic and communicates the ideas to lots of people clearly.
^ I read his books a lot as a kid. He's pretty cool. I like a lot of books about characters and their personal journeys and coming-of-age and whatnot, which I guess counts as literary fiction, so I don't dislike all of it. I just dislike the really pretentious stuff that tries WAY too hard to be profound and groundbreakingly serious, like when the entire story is full of metaphors and someone reflecting and stuffiness. And even some of those are good, but some of them get on my nerves. Especially when the author has a superiority complex about it, which I've seen a few times in my workshop classes.
^ Try reading Samuel Beckett's trilogy of Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnameable. I actually finished the first two but gave up on The Unnameable because it's pretty much a guy sitting in a room by himself narrating his thoughts. To make matters worse, the paragraphs in this book can go on for 50 pages or more.
For me real artistry, and the very best writing is when you don't care about it as you read. Someone may not be as fantastic with the punctuation, they may be considered to use too many adverbs, or info dump etc but as a reader I do not notice, and I don't care. The author is almost invisible. It always annoys when if someone does something in literary fiction that breaks the rules it is genius. The same people hailing the genius there will be the very ones to say JK Rowling, Dan Brown, Stephen King, Stephanie Meyer etc are bad writers, when actually the rules they broke contribute in someway to their story's brilliance. Their writing is almost unoticeable to millions of people as they read their stories and that to me is great writing.
I'm not too into literary fiction, either. Often, I read on my way to work, or on my way home from work. I'm tired during those times, and I just want to read something that's easy to understand. Like Elgaisma, I like invisible writing. When literary works, the writing is often anything but invisible. Of course, it never hurts to read a variety of genres, including ones we might dislike.
To OP there is no reason why you can't write a story that is character driven, says something about the human condition that also has a plot. Try putting the story aside and rewriting it from scratch not referring to the first draft unless there is a scene you can't make better and study some Dolly Parton songs: ''Me and Little Andy.'', ''Joshua'', ''Backwoods Barbie'', ''Jolene'', ''To Daddy'', ''Daddy Come and Get Me'' etc. All are great little character driven stories, and all make comment on the human condition. I personally think her songs are examples of how the very best literary fiction works. Watch her perform them if you can - like Shakespeare her works are intended to be performed. (most people's experience of Shakespeare is reading the heavily edited schools editions which have had all the best bits removed ... however that is another soapbox lol). As a writer I used hers and Shakespeare's examples for characterisation, but realised I needed to fill in the facial expression and other stage directions. For me great literary fiction is when the writing is invisible because it forms an integral part of the story, enhances it and deepens it. POV shifts, narrative tweaks, punctuation deviation etc should be there because they bring the character more alive and improve the story. They can be used to add clarity not to make a reader scratch their head.
