This course focuses on the writers who shaped Israeli literature and, in some ways, Israel itself. Dubbed "The Generation of the State," they were the first to emerge after 1948, in the newly-established State of Israel and the first to embrace English models like T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden. The 1955 anti-war poem by Yehuda Amichai "I Want to Die in My Bed" led a generations rebellion against glorifying nationalism and sacrifice. Other writers like Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua and Natan Zach fought for individual expression over the collective cause. Now considered the pillars of Hebrew literature, their lives are the subject of numerous documentaries and their works have been adapted into films.