Widerspenstige Hände

In literary texts of the early 20th century, human hands seem to become increasingly problematic. This study traces literary depictions of ›unruly hands‹ in the context of developments in the history of the media, technology and knowledge. Against the backdrop of circulating interests in hands in philosophy, medicine, anthropology and ergonomics, the study examines the ›productivity‹ of these depictions of refusal and unruliness: By avoiding the long-established praise of human manual dexterity, literary texts explore forms of refusal as both a mode of heightened reflectivity and a new sense of possibility concerning the use(s) of the human hand.