[en] A continuum model is proposed as a theoretical foundation for the inelastic state variable theory of Hart. The model is based on the existence of a free energy function and the assumption that a strained material element recalls two other local configurations which are, in some specified manner, descriptive of prior deformation. A precise formulation of these material hypotheses within the classical thermodynamical framework leads to the recovery of a generalized elastic law and the specification of evolutionary laws for the remembered configurations which are frame invariant and formally valid for finite strains. Moreover, the precise structure of Hart's theory is recovered when strains are assumed to be small