This essay analyzes Masao Miyoshi’s “turn to the planet” in his later work. In articulating this turn, Miyoshi critiques the logics of difference that has dominated comparative literary and area studies and offers the concept of “planetarianism” as a way of articulating the need for humanistic disciplines to address the global commons created by runaway consumption and environmental deterioration. In drawing on the visual images of photographer-artist Shimpei Takeda and the ecocritical work of Timothy Clark, this essay suggests how Miyoshi’s appeal for a new analytical approach to comparative and area studies might be implemented—one that would account for the totalities introduced by consumption, neoliberalism, and climate change. Suggested is a multifaceted approach that eschews parochialism in comparative studies, addresses geopolitical histories, and accounts for the material world.
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