Dystopic Spaces as The Chronotope of Escape in H. G. Wells' the time machine and when the sleeper wakes

Dystopias emerged as a warning against the degenerate and corrupted system of the society. Although utopias, which are based on Plato's ideal state, and dystopias are regarded as opposites, it can be seen that both have a great deal of features in common. Similar to dystopias, the most important function of utopias is to maintain the order in the society. In this regard, dystopias and utopias serve the same purpose. This thesis examines H. G. Wells' two novels, written during The Decadence Period in England- The Time Machine and When The Sleeper Awakes, and is about the transformation of the two characters during their travel into future while they are actually stuck within the Victorian categories of the Decadence Period and left immobile. Thusly, this thesis aims to prove that dystopias, contrary to the belief that they are anti-utopias, are, indeed, alternative spaces and escape chronotopes in which characters, that are stuck in the societal categories and left immobile, gain mobility. In this thesis, Bakhtin's concept of chronotope is examined and how dystopic spaces turn into escape chronotopes is demonstrated based on Bakhtin's adventure, road and encounter chronotopes. Apart from Bakhtin's definition of space, other definitions of space, defined by theoreticians such as Bachelard and Foucault after the traditional concept of space lost its meaning with the spatial turn in the twentieth century, are benefitted.