TRANSLATIONS INTO CROATIAN OF KING UBU

The subject of this essay is a comparative and contrastive analysis of Mislay Hudoletnjak's (1991) and Vladimir Geric's (1995) translations of Alfred Jarry's King Ubu (Ubu roi, 1896) into the Croatian language. Alfred Jury's text is known for its numerous orthographic modifications, frequent changes in register and abundant use of archaisms, neologisms, vulgarisms and colloquial expressions, which makes its translation a highly demanding task. Seeing that the two Croatian translations of Alfred Jarry's text have not so far been analyzed and considering the cultural importance of the text and its impact on the development of the 20th century avant-garde theatre, this issue should be addressed. The importance of the intermediary role translations have between two cultures and their crucial role in the reception of a certain text, or its author, will be taken into consideration. The translation efficiency will be evaluated, especially the way the orthographic modifications, personal names, vulgarisms, archaisms and neologism have been translated. It will be examined whether the translations respect the change in language registers and stylistic and semantic coherency of the original text and whether they produce the same effect on readers as the original. The Croatian translations will be considered as works of art and the translation process will be regarded as interpretative and creative. The evaluation is based on the theoretical principles of the contemporary translation studies. [GRAPHICS] .