The author tackles the question of how Europe has dealt with 'the other' in the course of its history. He explores the role which 'the other' has played in the development of Europe's peoples and their art, literature and translation. His main focus is the question whether it is possible to develop ways of seeing 'the other' that do not draw on stereotypical projections of the desires, ideals and dreams of the 'self'. Founding his answers on the work of Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Homi K. Bhabha and Gayatri Spivak, he pleads for the creative potential of the 'third place' between languages and cultures.