Hope Deferred: Post-Apocalyptic Fiction as Anti-Utopia

This paper explores contemporary post-apocalyptic narratives as cultural metaphors reflecting anxieties about societal collapse, environmental crisis, and the future. It argues these narratives often function as anti-utopias, depicting inevitable catastrophe and fostering fatalism rather than radical alternatives. Using a materialist and sociological approach, the study examines the epistemic role of post-apocalyptic literature, analyzing how these works bridge literary form and socio-political context. Case studies from Italian and international novels reveal a pattern grounded in realism and extra-literary references, warning of ecological and technological dangers but seldom imagining paths to transformation. This tension underscores a cultural crisis of imagination, where the apocalypse is both metaphor and reality, challenging hopeful futures in literature and society. Yet, feminist utopias present alternative visions, imagining new societies beyond collapse and inspiring change.