Essay Questions

Describe the postmodern approach incorporated in “Unfinished Business”

Patience Agbabi utilizes dark humor when she writes, “I didn’t bring my wife to Gravesend for this.” The speaker replaces the name of the place where the crime transpired with the term “Gravesend.” Literally, the name infers that the speaker was conveying his spouse to the grave by bringing her to the place. The term ‘Gravesend’ epitomizes dark humor that eliminates the tension credited the wife and daughter’s predicament.

How does the structure of “Unfinished Business” amplify the speaker’s preoccupation?“

Unfinished Business” has two verses. Both verses have sixteen lines each. The second verse reverses the arrangement of the lines from the first verse. As a result, all of the lines in the first verse are repeated in the second verse in reverse order. The last line in the first verse becomes the first line in the second stanza and vice versa. The organization of the lines designates that the speaker is engrossed in the recent happening that impacted his family adversely. This structure affirms that the speaker’s thoughts are circular.

Which Postmodern technique does “The Doll’s House” epitomize?

Patience Agbabi’s “The Doll’s House” (2013) illustrates intertextuality. The title is similar to Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” (1879). Agbabi explicitly lauds Ibsen by adopting a title analogous to that of Ibsen’s play.