Ursula K. Le Guin’s 'Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction'
This paper draws on theories and models from several disciplines, encouraging a dialogue between these different voices. In the context of this research Ursula K. Le Guin’s Carrier Bag Theory was a relatively late arrival. Although I have been familiar with this theory for at least a decade, it was only during the final day of the practical workshop associated with this research that I recognised its potential application. During this paper it serves as a contextual construct that reappears in different guises.
Le Guin’s The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction was first published in 1988 but has experienced a renewal of interest in recent years. Le Guin suggests that rather than reifying the spear, the weapon, as our first technological achievement, we should consider the container, the bag, the gourd, the carrier bag, as our first cultural invention. What does the receptable hold? Le Guin outlines how this theory can benefit ways of thinking about writing fiction. The carrier bag is a place where ideas, topics, characters, information, can be held together, in relation. Furthermore, these relations may create a non-linear environment.1 I would like to use this image of a container on multiple levels in this paper.
The hero narrative
One aspect of the carrier bag theory which has relevance in a discussion of the conservatoire and its curriculum is associated with hero narratives. Corey Jamason suggests that until the nineteenth century, the relationship between the composer and performer was highly collaborative.2 A number of situations seemed to have reinforced the development of role separation, such as: ‘new, individualistic approaches to composition, an increasing sense of the uniqueness of each creative artist, a newly found reverence for the composer as “hero”, as well as the emergence of a new reverence for compositions as important entities unto themselves’. 3
Lydia Goehr outlines in The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works how the notion of ‘Werktreue’— being faithful to the ‘work’ and the reification of the score—led to the performer’s role being constricted to that of interpreter.4 Furthermore, early in the 19th century recitals started to take place in which works from earlier periods were performed, elevating the status of the composer.5 A notion of the heroic composer began to emerge along with an understanding of who this would be (white, cis-male, heteronormative). One could argue that although movements such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter have made some inroads into expanding the notion of who a composer can be, the idea of the hero—which serves neo-liberal marketing that favours an individualistic and competitive approach—is still very much alive and kicking.6 In the light of this, Le Guin’s theory, which de-centres the role of the hero, the hunter-warrior, in favour of the narrative of the ‘carriers’ those (often women), who gathered and prepared sustenance for the community, offers another approach. I will consider later how this notion of de-centering might be useful in the imagining of what a curriculum might include.
Another relevant translation of Le Guin’s theory materialises in relation to the notion of the conservatoire as a carrier bag of musical knowledge. A place where historic knowledge, embodied knowledge and new ideas can intra-act. The musical canon can, furthermore, be considered as a particular container within this larger bag. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, the carrier bag theory can be applied when thinking about the personal cultural baggage that a student brings with them when entering the conservatoire.