The 59th lecture of the seminar series hosted by the Center for Interdisciplinary Narrative Studies, School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University was held on 10 October 2026 in Room 225, Yang Yongman Building, Minhang Campus. Professor Emeritus Seán Hand (University of Warwick) delivered the talk Understanding Otherwise: Translation, Ethics and Incomplete Knowledge. Chaired by Associate Professor (Tenure-Track) Tang Yili, the event drew a large audience of faculty, students and early-career scholars from across the university.

Professor Hand challenged the commonplace view that translation merely transfers fixed meaning between languages. Instead, understanding arises through translation itself. Reflecting on his translations of Deleuze, Levinas and other French philosophers, he argued that translations do not replicate originals exactly; they generate “affirmative difference” and constitute new acts of interpretation. Translation is thus an ethical dialogue with the Other, requiring translators to guard against textual appropriation and misuse. Comparing canonical English versions of Homer’s Odyssey and assessing Nolan’s film adaptation, he noted that while the film popularises the epic, it simplifies the source’s layered complexity. He stressed that even if total knowledge is unattainable, translation sustains cross-cultural exchange as an ethical space for ongoing conversation, revision and rethinking.

A lively Q&A followed. Tenured Professor Zhu Yifan started with the Italian maxim “Traduttore, traditore” (“Translator, traitor”) and the historical debates over fidelity, alongside the Chinese notion that “words fall short of meaning”, to ask about ethical limits in evaluating translations. Professor Hand responded that translation always inhabits the space between fidelity and betrayal. He illustrated this with the shifting semantics of “infidel” and his work on Levinas, acknowledging his own limits in Chinese philosophy as part of the self-education enabled by incomplete knowledge. Further questions addressed Emily Wilson’s reimagining of classics, Anne Carson’s experimental translation, and tonal contrasts between Old English Beowulf and Seamus Heaney’s rendering. Professor Hand responded thoughtfully to each query.

Bringing together translation practice, ethical inquiry and cross-cultural engagement, this lecture offered rich intellectual insights for attendees. The 59th session of the series closed successfully.