| Abstract | Recent years have seen the emergence of a new field of research called “memory studies”, with an ambiguous relationship to the work of Maurice Halbwachs. Although the discipline presents the French sociologist as a founding father, most authors involved in its definition claim their work leaves his theory behind. Their focus is said to have shifted from “society” and “its representations” – seen as the sole level and object of Halbwachs’ thought – to “actors” and “their practices” which supposedly did not interest the author of La Mémoire collective. This development explains the success of notions such as “entrepreneurs”, “agents”, and other “actors” of “memory”. The present article takes a critical approach, measuring these proposed alternative analyses against both Halbwachs’ theory and an empirical case study of the expression of memory through the title of Righteous among the Nations. In so doing it seeks to uphold the thesis that both Halbwachs’ work and, by extension, general sociology, are operational for work on “memory” today and, in particular, for the renewal of approaches to it.
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