In this paper, we evaluate Serpil Oppermann’s “Storied Seas and Living Metaphors in the Blue Humanities” as a turning point in the theoretical development of ecocriticism. Oppermann’s application of her own theory, material ecocriticism, in the reading of the water bodies that entwine the biological and the textual, situates material-ecocritical undertakings as a landmark of the ecocritical map. The well-known metaphor of the wave, used in explicating the growth of ecocriticism, was replaced by the metaphor of the rhizome in an earlier essay by Oppermann herself. By affirming both metaphors as valid, we argue that Oppermann’s 2019 Configurations essay initiated the fourth wave of ecocriticism and showcased what it means to follow a rhizomatic pattern. In our response, we take Oppermann’s open call to hear the voices of marine creatures as an invitation to explore the limits of the environmental humanities and seek to push our ocularcentric academic borders. Developing a new framework to study the soundscape of the ocean, we intend to literally hear the voices of marine entities (provided to the reader/audience through QR codes) and investigate what kind of new narratives might emerge out of this experience.

在本文中，我们将塞尔皮尔·奥珀曼的《蓝色人文中的传奇海洋和鲜活隐喻》评价为生态批评理论发展的转折点。奥珀曼将她自己的理论——物质生态批评——应用到对生物与文本交织在一起的水体的解读中，将物质生态批评事业定位为生态批评地图的一个里程碑。在奥珀曼本人较早的一篇文章中，用于解释生态批评增长的著名的波浪隐喻被根茎的隐喻所取代。通过确认这两个比喻都是有效的，我们认为奥珀曼的 2019 年配置文章引发了第四波生态批评，并展示了遵循根茎模式的含义。在我们的回应中，我们将奥珀曼公开呼吁聆听海洋生物的声音作为探索环境人文学科极限并寻求突破我们以眼睛为中心的学术边界的邀请。通过开发一个新的框架来研究海洋声景，我们打算真正听到海洋实体的声音（通过二维码提供给读者/观众），并调查这种体验可能会出现什么样的新叙述。