Journal of the stylistic of Persian poem and prose
volume Number 18، number In Volume 9، December 2025 ، issue Number 115

Investigating the manifestations of the human perspective on war and resistance in the novel Journey to the Orient 270 Degrees based on the Frankfurt School and Eric Fromm perspective

Mousa Gholizadeh , Freshteh Naseri (Author in Charge), Razieh Zavarian

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: War and resistance literature in the last century, as part of the collective memory of nations, has played a pivotal role in shaping their cultural and historical identity. However, the main question is whether this literature is merely a reflection of military and political events or can it be a container for rethinking fundamental human concepts such as freedom, love, hope, and death.

METHODOLOGY: The present study uses a descriptive-analytical method to examine the novel Journey to the Orient 270 Degrees by Ahmad Dehghan.

FINDINGS: The author has benefited from his own lived experience. As a teenage fighter in the Iran-Iraq War, Dehghan has given this work a special authenticity and objectivity that goes beyond the level of slogan and ideological narratives and represents resistance as a human and tangible experience. The theoretical framework of this research is based on two foundations: first, the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, which emphasizes the critique of domination, ideology, and mass culture; and second, Erich Fromm’s views on social psychology, basic human needs, and personality types.

CONCLUSION: In the novel “Journey to the 270 Degrees,” the author focuses on the humanization of resistance and the highlighting of the fighter’s figure not as an ideological and transhuman being, but as a loving, hopeful, and suffering human being. In this novel, the teenagers’ narrative of war is such that death, daily life, family, and small human desires are placed alongside the experience of the front, and it also mixes captivity, torture, and psychological pressures with love, faith, and hope, elevating resistance to a level beyond military battle.

Keyword
Resistance literature , peasant , Journey to the 270 Degrees , Frankfurt School , Erich Fromm