Reimagining Oceanic Consciousness: A Blue Humanities Reading of Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Abstract

The study explores Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798) through the emerging interdisciplinary framework of Blue Humanities. It aims to emphasize the poem’s deep engagement with oceanic environments. By employing Steve Mentz’s concept of oceanic consciousness (2024), the research contends that the ocean functions as an active and dynamic participant, and shapes the Mariner’s psychological, moral and ecological awareness. Through qualitative research method and close textual analysis, the study investigates Coleridge’s depiction of ocean imagery, shifting seascapes, marine life, and the Mariner’s evolving inner state. By foregrounding the ocean’s agency and ethical presence, the analysis positions the poem as anticipatory of contemporary environmental and marine thought. Incorporating Serpil Oppermann’s concept of aqueous relationality (2023), the study emphasizes the fluid and interconnected relations between humans and water bodies.  This framework reveals the ocean as a morally and ecologically transformative space. Ultimately, the research offers fresh insight into Coleridge’s environmental imagination, and demonstrates how the poem reconceives the sea as a site of ethical reflection, ecological interconnection, and evolving oceanic consciousness.