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All literary texts raise problems of interpretation. That is all the more 
true when these texts come from a foreign culture and have obviously not 
been written for us. The question is: how can we determine when our 
understanding of a literary work stops? There always seems to be a gap that 
cannot be bridged, a kernel that will always resist us. What is the exact 
nature of the foreign referents, of modes of symbolization we are not 
familiar with, of a memory which is not ours? It is commonly accepted that, 
even though mankind is one, cultures are irretrievably divided. Can a 
foreign writer tell us something that will be relevant for us about 
ourselves, the others, the world the divine, etc.? The problem clearly also 
has pedagogical consequences, especially for students who study literary 
works written in a foreign language.