Your friend's right: English Literature is an absolutely pointless degree. I'm an English student too and I despise my course: so much so that I'm actually contemplating dropping out of University and re-doing my A Levels. The only thing that's stopping me is the realisation that I'll have spent £9000 on nothing. So far, there has only been one novel on my course that's actually captivated my interest; the rest have bored me to tears. My last set-text was so uninteresting I couldn't even finish it; I relied entirely on Google's knowledge of it to get me through my assessment.
I haven't actually enjoyed reading since I started the course, if I'm honest, which is strange because I still enjoyed reading during my A Levels. My favourite novel is 'Wuthering Heights' but lately I've not been able to read it without unintentionally looking for Gothic elements of excess/transgression, and involuntarily evaluating how Bronte's presentation of Catherine's character compares with the typical gender conventions of the time period.
I only decided to study English because it came easy to me in school and I didn't see the point in spending hours studying the other subjects that interested me when I could get A*s in English for doing nothing. Now, though, I totally regret choosing to study English and I'm currently researching ways of getting back into A Level education to study science.
Most of my friends who are studying Literature do so because they think it'll help them to become writers; in reality, though, the chances of any of them becoming writers are so incredibly slim that it's just not worth wasting your life, and your money, on a boring degree.
I hope your friend's at least managing to enjoy his course, though; I have to force myself to attend lectures and when I get there I sit through them thinking 'why am I wasting my time evaluating imaginary people when there are so many other more useful things I could be studying right now?' Some of the things you study are so pathetic, too. Like, we recently discussed the concept of the author and some critics argue that there is no such thing as an author and meaning originates from the reader, which is obviously a load of rubbish. Gr. I hate it, and so do a lot of other people my course: you have to really passionate about critiquing Literature to stick with it, I think.