“The New Superstition, the New Tyranny”: The Ethics and Contexts of John Cowper Powys's Antivivisection

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the antivivisectionist writings of British novelist and philosopher John Cowper Powys (1872–1963) during the 1930s and 1940s. Powys's opposition to the widespread practice of animal experimentation, both in his fiction and his contributions to activist newspapers, has been noted by critics to have prefigured the modern animal rights movement. On the surface, his writings on the subject display an unnuanced and impassioned outrage, yet on closer inspection, they form a logical piece of Powys's idiosyncratic worldview and to some extent reflect the arguments of “new age” antivivisection campaigns of his time.