Originally Posted by Terrapin_Station

Criticism in the LitCrit sense, though, is often just analysis, and it can just as easily involve positive comments, too.

Etymologically, "criticism" comes from French critique, which comes from the Latin criticus "a judge, literary critic," which comes from the Greek kritikos "able to make judgments" as well as the Greek krinein "to separate, decide."

The academic sense is closer to the sense used for "critical theory," for example, which is "a philosophical approach to culture, and especially to literature, that seeks to confront the social, historical, and ideological forces and structures that produce and constrain it," although that destresses making aesthetic value judgments, which is part of academic (art) criticism as well.

Or, if you're at all familiar with Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, he's analyzing reason from a rationalist (as opposed to empiricist) perspective (hence "pure"). He's not telling you why reason sucks or how it could be improved.