This paper attempts to rescue the theme of the foreigner and to relate it to the structure of the literary text. This relation derives, essentially, from the notion of otherness, that is, from the relationship with the other – the strange-foreign of the original work – which presents itself from the moment of its creation. A concrete example of the challenge the translator has to face will be given in our research, by the analysis of the title of the work: L'épreuve de l'étranger, which creates an impasse – does it refer to an experience or to a proof? To what is strange or to what is foreign?