Abstract
This article is synthetically presenting the shared fields between the memory theories and the space of politics. The argument is divided in a presentation of two major dimensions.
The first one is the question of the state control of the legitimate culture, and therefore, of the collective memory accompanying the emergence of a national state. The second one is the new problematic of collective memory existing since the Second World War that is presented.
Developed mainly by philosophers, it is related to a duty to remember (devoir de mémoire) existing toward the victims of the Shoah. Finally, in practice, the politics of memory is presented as part of political tactics, having elements of those two dimensions, on the base of an example of the French so-called “memorial laws”.