ABSTRACT
Drawing upon contemporary theorists, including Weeks, Jameson, and Žižek, the article explores the notion of utopianism in two novels: Last Ones Left Alive (2019) by Sarah Davis-Goff and Individutopia (2018) by Joss Sheldon. Following Weeks’s “utopian demands,” the chapter examines in detail how the female protagonists of Last Ones Left Alive and Individutopia become formed as feminist subjects in the process of generating their utopian proposals and how the posthuman condition affects this process. Furthermore, the article explores the ways in which the two aforementioned 21st-century novels (taking place during times when humanity faces extinction) develop expounded utopian narratives (intersecting with queer and socialist utopias) in their dystopian framework. What distinguishes these literary speculations is the fact that elaborate utopian scenarios are realised alongside lasting annihilation, and they are not located in some indefinite horizon in pre-apocalyptic times. It is claimed here that due to making their particularised feminist utopian demands, Last Ones Left Alive and Individutopia can offer innovative textual solutions, promoting, what Žižek calls, positive utopianism.
