So what is chorusing? It is the word used to describe when a writer repeats various words, motifs or phrases throughout a text to reflect either the obsessions of characters or the central ideas of the story.
Kurt Vonnegut is said to have pioneered the technique in his novel 'Slaughterhouse Five', a story which centres on soldier Billy Pilgrim, his World War II experiences and journeys through time.
The phrase "so it goes" is repeated a total of one-hundred and six times throughout the work according to vonnegutweb.com and is used when dying, death or mortality occur or to move the narrative from one subject to another. Here is an example:
"Those were vile people in both those cities, as is well known. The world was better off without them. And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human.
So she was turned into a pillar of salt. So it goes."
Another novel which uses chorusing to great effect ( and, allong with 'Lolita' has influenced much of my own style) is Chuck Palahnuik's 'Fight Club', where the narrator uses titles from old Readers Digests where human organs write about themselves in first person to demonstrate the obsessive, all-consuming nature of Fight Club as well as his own mental instability. Example :
" I am Joe's Prostrate. I am Joe's Gallbladder. I am Joe's Raging Bile Duct. I am Joe's Grinding Teeth. I am Joe's Inflamed Flaring Nostrils. I am Joe's White Knuckles. I am Joe's Enraged, Inflamed Sense of Rejection. I am Joe's Clenching Bowels. "
I think chorusing, when used correctly can be used to illustrate characters, ideas and central themes of importance within a text. The technique creates a faster pace for writing and assists readers by reminding them of previous passages and returning their focus to the core of the work. I hope I can employ this device in my own submission in order to create this effect.
