Signs in the Mark of Athena Novel Cover: A Semiotic Analysis

Abstract

This study aims to describe and analyze the semiotic signs found in The Mark of Athena’s novel cover. This study also explains the meaning of the signs found on the cover. Cover from Rick Riordan’s novel is used because the series of the book is famous and soon will be adapted into a movie by Disney star Plus. There are two objectives of this study; to know the verbal and non-verbal signs found in The Mark of Athena’s novel cover and to know the meaning of verbal and non-verbal signs found in the cover. In analyzing the data, the writer used the qualitative method. This study has examined verbal and non-verbal signs found in The Mark of Athena’s novel cover using the theory from Saussure (1957) that divides signs into verbal and non-verbal signs. And the second theory from Barthes (1977) according to Barthes, there are two main points of meaning; denotative and connotative. Based on the theory that is used to describe the first objective of the study, this study found 15 signs on the cover; 9 verbal signs, and 6 nonverbal signs. From the 15 signs, 6 of them conceive denotative meaning and 9 of them conceive connotative meaning. It can be concluded that the mark of Athena’s novel cover conceives more signs that have a hidden meaning or riddle that will make the reader interested to buy the novel.