Back to results

Western Kentucky University

Gritting Teeth: A Memoir of Unhealthy Love

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<p>Originally intended to be modeled after Eula Biss’s creative nonfiction essay “The Balloonists”—which tackles the subject of marriage via fragmented prose poems— “Gritting Teeth: A Memoir of Unhealthy Love” is a piece that has taken on a subject and form of its own. A memoirist like Vivian Gornick might not claim the writer’s piece, as it hesitates to offer a “story” in places. A memoirist like Sue William Silverman might not claim the piece, as it hesitates to be courageous at times. But this collage of song lyrics, research snippets, and even Craigslist postings works in conjunction with fragments from the writer’s two most “serious” romantic relationships, as well as fragments from her more recent romantic past, to create a piece that has given her an awareness of the unhealthy relationship behaviors she possesses, and with that, a tinge of hope for changing these behaviors in the future. To the woman who’s ever been obsessive about a boyfriend (or even a fling), the woman who’s married for ulterior motives, or the woman/man interested in peering into the recesses of a neurotic, obsessive, and generally warped female mind, the writer offers this memoir.</p>

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Arts
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Department of English
Year
2010

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Day, Samantha L.
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Dr. Dale Rigby (Director), Dr. David LeNoir, Dr. Wes Berry

Subjects

dc:subject × 7

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Repository record dc:identifier
https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/230
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:digitalcommons.wku.edu:theses-1233

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Western Kentucky University
Base URL
digitalcommons.wku.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Day, Samantha L.. Gritting Teeth: A Memoir of Unhealthy Love. 2010. https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/230