I criticize because I care

Jackson Pollock comes to mind when critical theory is on the table. Many of his paintings have numbers instead of titles, because he believed that one should “look passively -- and try to receive what the painting has to offer and not bring a subject matter or preconceived idea of what they are to be looking for.” Arguably, this is an aspect of critical theory. Nevertheless, I believe that Pollock recognized how oftentimes people loose themselves in the obsession over the creator's intent. He seems to say that the message does not come from the creator, but the created. Furthermore, that the message may not even come from the painter, but derived solely from the painting. Pollock is stressing importance in the relationship between an individual and artistic.

Pollock’s approach to critical theory demonstrates how the experience is unique to the beholder which also applies to literary theory. Conventional literary criticism wrestles to illuminate the confounded influences that attribute to the creation of literature. For example, an inseparable component to literary criticism is cultural context. Not surprisingly, a literary criticism is also a product of culture as it too is a piece of literature. Even this blog post is an indicator of our own culture. All literature, including literary criticism, acts as a window peering into its point of origin.

I suspect that critical literary theory seeks to address the following:
argument
question
proposed solution
cultural context
historical context
spatial context
hidden references or dialogue between works

Critical theory is the dissection of literature, the tool that is comprised of written thoughts or ideas and can serve almost any purpose in relation to communication, to understand the interworking of verbal organ systems.

http://painting.about.com/od/colourtheory/a/Pollock_paint.htm