LeGuin’s “The Carrier Bag Theory” is not only super interesting and pertinent for a writing studies course, but it’s the only short and relatively accessible narrative I could find that tackles the overall purpose and use of stories. However, the text is dense and far more “writerly” than my freshman are comfortable reading. If I want them to truly understand it, I must make rather a meal out of it. I consider this another of the essay’s benefits, as it gives us a chance to discuss reading approaches and to practice reading something that challenges them. It’s also useful to help them think about the difference between an “academic” argument, which responds to a particular text, and a “writerly” argument such as this one.
Before they read, I ask students to prep, in teams; to do a “pre-read” that will help them do a rhetorical analysis. (I like to do this right after they read the “how to” on rhetorical analysis (links to that here) and let them rely on their memory of the reading without providing further instruction. (I do, however, give the significant clue that this will involve using the internet.) This ensures that they gather valuable context first. There are enough summaries of this piece online that they should be able to cobble together a comprehensive thesis before they even start reading.
I like to teach “The Carrier Bag Theory” at the same time as we’re learning about three-story theses because it offers such a great example of a complex, layered thesis. From the summaries they find online, before even reading the piece, students should be able to identify the three “stories” of LeGuin’s thesis.
1st story of “Carrier Bag” thesis: Our ancestors were able to provide for their needs in only fifteen hours a week of gathering nuts and berries. 2nd story of “Carrier Bag” thesis: LeGuin argues that our ancestors were attracted to hunting not only because of the meat it provided (which they didn’t technically need) but for the dramatic stories it provided. The tale of the hunt is dramatic. It portrays a violent situation in which a hero prevailed. The club or bone or other phallic symbol used as a weapon symbolizes this kind of story. 3rd story of “Carrier Bag” thesis: LeGuin says she’s more interested in stories that resemble a bag to contain and transport a curated set of items than she is in stories that resemble a bone to whack people with. How different might our society be if we didn’t value violent stories; if instead, we exclusively absorbed more nuanced stories about everyday tensions? Would we be more empathetic? Less competitive? Less violent?
My students only begin to read LeGuin’s piece after they’ve read quite a lot about it online and after they’ve identified the three layers of its thesis, using summaries they’ve found online. I then ask them to create a reverse outline as they read, so I can ensure their understanding.
LeGuin reprises her thesis of The Carrier Bag Theory in her book Steering the Craft, where she states,
Modernist manuals of writing often conflate story with conflict. This reductionism reflects a culture that inflates aggression and competition while cultivating ignorance of other behavioral options. No narrative of any complexity can be built on or reduced to a single element. Conflict is one kind of behavior. There are others, equally important in any human life, such as relating, finding, losing, bearing, discovering, parting, changing. Change is the universal aspect of all these sources of story. Story is something moving, something happening, something or somebody changing.
I return to this quote often throughout the course, asking students to identify the change in their own literacy narratives, in the fiction they read, and even in the Platonic dialogues.