Word play in Vselena from the Uzh collection of literary works by D. Vodenicharov

The present article is devoted to the phraseological language play found in Vselena from Uzh – a collection of Dimitar Vodenicharov’s literary works (Vodenicharov is also the author of several other books, including Phraseological Novel). By using language play in the text, the author interprets the Biblical themes of creation and Adam and Eve, intertwining the logic of the modern world (with an emphasis on the stereotypes of women) with the logic of the holy book. As a result, there is a clash between the language of today’s popular culture and our preconceived notions about the high style characteristic of texts like the Bible. The analysis focuses on various types of lexical-level language play (i.e. lexical, phraseological and other playful transformations). The article concludes that, on the one hand, language play is a feature specifically used in the construction of the text under analysis (Vselena), on the other hand, it is related to the cognitive mechanisms used by the modern person for its interpretation and his/her abilities to encode and decode a multi-layered text through making associative links based on extensive background knowledge.