No doubt you noticed that I have shifted by subtle degrees from describing literary texts to discussing literary experiences . I did not make the shift entirely by accident. The two concepts are intimately related. Remember that people construct texts, like other artifacts, on purpose. Their purpose in constructing a literary text is to provoke a literary experience, which requires a response to language.
Instruction is a feature literature shares with other texts.
A grocery list gives instructions for running an errand. The Ten Commandments give instructions for running a life. The instruction does not have to be direct and explicit, though. Take a teenager gossiping about the way her classmates dress. Or take West Side Story.