"Go [expletive] a girl for me": Bivalent Meaning, Cultural Miscues and Verbal Play in Ukrainian Migrant Labor Stories

Abstract

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, migrant labor has become an increasingly important source of income for workers in the southwest Zakarpattia region of Ukraine. This article explores how locally constructed meanings of migrant labor emerge through bilingual verbal play in narratives focused on cultural differences between Zakarpattia villagers' life at home and the situations and people they encounter abroad. In my analysis of jokes and humorous narratives about migrant labor gathered in the field I focus on narrators' use of bivalent and near‐bivalent words and phrases as a resource for the expression and representation of the complex relationship of villagers toward their position in the post‐socialist cultural, linguistic, and economic landscape.

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