Carrier Bag Ecologies: Rethinking Storytelling and More-than-Human Care in Digital Environments​

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Burcu Nimet Dumlu

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Abstract.

 

Digital ecologies are often shaped by the logic of the heroic arc described by Joseph Campbell, in which conflict drives the plot, a singular protagonist secures resolution, and worlds are remade through conquest. Such Campbellian narratives, common in video games and virtual reality (VR) environments, mirror cultural imaginaries where salvation arrives through domination. Against this, Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction offers a different orientation (stories of relation, multiplicity, and ongoingness). This article compares four digital ecologies, comprising three video games and one virtual reality game, two of which are structured through monomythic arcs of Campbellian thought and two that turn toward Le Guinian storytelling, to demonstrate how narrative choices shape ecological imagination. Drawing on María Puig de la Bellacasa’s understanding of care as “maintenance,” “repair,” and “situated knowledge,” the analysis reframes digital ecologies as sites for cultivating more-than-human awareness. By shifting from heroic scripts to relational practices, the article advocates for feminist approaches to digital storytelling that sustain rather than conquer, and open digital worlds to ecological futures of care.

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Keywords: storytelling, hero’s journey, Carrier Bag, more-than-human care, digital ecologies