The PhD dissertation compares the literary theory and novels of modern Japanese writer Natsume Sōseki. It reads Sōseki’s Theory of Literature (2009, Bungakuron, 1907) as an inherently comparative and interdisciplinary approach to theorizing feelings in world literature. More broadly, the dissertation investigates the critical negotiation of the novel as a travelling genre in Japan in the beginning of the 20th century, and, more specifically, Sōseki’s work in relation to world literature and affect theory. Sōseki’s work is highly influential in Japan and East Asia, and his novels widely circulated beyond Japan. Using Sōseki’s theory as an example, and by comparing it to other theories, the dissertation argues that comparative literature needs to include not only more non-Western literature but also more non-Western literary theories in the ongoing debate of world literature. Close-reading his novels, it analyzes how his particular style of writing, relates to his theory of a continuity of consciousness (ishiki no renzoku) as well as to a particular moment-by-moment everyday aesthetics that is inspired by the Japanese sketching style (shaseibun).