I feel like this sort of intersects with philosophy, if it doesn't full under it entirely. I wonder if anyone hear studies it, or considers themselves to be a critic (amateur or otherwise). The various schools of thought with respect to analyzing literature (placing meaning in the text, such as the formalists, or within the reader, as with the reader response school, and many strange idea in between) are interesting from a philosophical perspective, often addressing questions of phenomenology, ontology and epistemology. If no one has anything to chime in initially, I'll come back and try to kick-start some discussion.