“HAND-MONSTER”—AN EXPLORATION STARTING WITH DERRIDA'S "HEIDEGGER'S HAND"

Abstract

This study explores Jacques Derrida's essay "Heidegger's Hand," examining the philosophical significance of the "hand" and its deep connections to "monstrosity" (monstruosité) and the untranslatable term Geschlecht (race/gender/lineage). While classical and phenomenological traditions—such as Aristotle and Martin Heidegger—view the hand as an essential symbol distinguishing humans from animals and binding thought with speech, Derrida deconstructs this view. Drawing on the French translation of Hölderlin's poetry, Derrida links the sign (Zeichen) with "monster/monstrosity" (monstre/monstruosité), showing that the hand, as a sign showing and warning, inherently diverges from fixed meanings, thereby exhibiting monstrosity. Heidegger abstracts the hand into the singular "the hand" (die Hand) to build a pure "human Geschlecht" while excluding animality, technology, and polysemy, inadvertently creating a "one-handed monster". Derrida destabilizes this metaphysical fantasy of univocity by noting that Heidegger "still writes with two hands," exposing the inescapable duality, translation gaps, and polysemic tensions within language and Being. Ultimately, releasing the "hand-monster" frees us from the obsession with absolute presence and unified identity, confronting us with the monstrous hands that perpetually show and give while endlessly drifting from singular meaning.