Alison Landsberg’s concept of ‘prosthetic memory’ is one in a series of metaphors adopted by Memory Studies. In this article Landsberg’s tropic concept serves not only as a case study in relation to Memory Studies, but also as a prompt to scholars to engage critically with the use of metaphor in cultural/literary studies. Metaphors matter. Poorly used figurative language can hamper communication and restrict how a given topic is both circumscribed and analysed. According to conceptual metaphor theorists, metaphors influence how we think as well as how we speak, and thus, potentially, how we live. To this end the term ‘prosthetic memory’ is analysed in the context of the relationship between the literal and the figurative as manifested at various levels in Prosthetic Memory, from Landsberg’s use of a key film – The Thieving Hand – in her theory-building, to her stylistic tics and sleights of hand, to her probably unconscious use of verbal metaphors (considered by some as ‘dead’).

艾莉森兰茨伯格的“假肢记忆”概念是记忆研究采用的一系列隐喻中的一个。在本文中，兰茨伯格的回归概念不仅作为与记忆研究相关的案例研究，而且作为一种提示，促使学者批判性地参与文化/文学研究中隐喻的使用。比喻很重要。使用不当的比喻语言会妨碍交流并限制给定主题的限定和分析方式。根据概念隐喻理论家的说法，隐喻会影响我们的思考方式和说话方式，从而潜在地影响我们的生活方式。为此，术语“假体存储器”在字面上和具象之间的关系的上下文中被分析为在各级表现假肢存储器，从兰茨伯格在她的理论构建中使用关键电影——盗贼之手，到她的文体抽搐和手法，到她可能无意识地使用口头隐喻（被一些人认为是“死的”）。