ABSTRACT
Running through the essays in this collection is the major theme of memory as the source of intergenerational transmission of culture and history across borders of many kinds—whether relating to family, community, nation, ancestry, or political allegiance—and the importance of the intimate and personal in that transmission. In any attempt to report on the life of another, or even one's own life, an inescapable ethical dilemma arises that relates to entering intensely private areas of experience and presenting an intimate subject matter for the world to see. How much intimate material should be revealed? For what purpose? To whose benefit? At what risk? How? In an era when millions of people are willing to share the minutiae of their individual daily lives via social media and the private lives of the famous are exposed routinely to mass audiences, such questions loom larger than ever. With easier access to private information—by governments, hackers, marketers, and private citizens—this area has become one of global concern in the context of the fundamental human right to privacy.1
