Part I, Beginnings - historical in scope, it examines psychological, rhetorical, and cultural concepts of memory in thinkers from Plato to Walter Benjamin; Part II, Positionings, explores the three perspectives most used to define and debate memory today: Collective Memory; Jewish Memory Discourse; and Trauma; Part III, Identities, examines the key role of memory in contemporary constructions of identity in Gender; Race/Nation; and Diaspora Studies. A general intrudoction sets out the significance of the field of memory studies, while the nine sections include separate introductions and further reading.