The rhetoric of the image in the cover design of Laut Bercerita

Abstract

This study examines how the cover design of the 2017 softcover edition of Leila S. Chudori's Laut Bercerita represents the novel's narrative of political violence, loss, and collective memory. Using a qualitative descriptive approach, the study applies Roland Barthes's Rhetoric of the Image, with particular attention to the linguistic message, uncoded iconic message, coded iconic message, and anchorage. The primary data consist of the front cover and its dominant verbal and visual units, while the secondary data are drawn from design studies, semiotic studies, and studies on the novel's historical-fiction context. The findings indicate that the cover constructs a tightly integrated verbal-visual system in which the title and author line frame an underwater scene dominated by chained feet, fish, coral formations, and blue tonal fields. In the discussion, these elements are interpreted as a rhetoric of suppression and remembrance, through which the sea shifts from a decorative setting to a symbolic archive of disappearance and historical trauma. The study concludes that the cover functions not only as a marketing surface but also as a visual argument that condenses the novel's humanitarian and ideological concerns.