TABOO LANGUAGE AND MORAL TRANSGRESSION IN LEILA S. CHUDORI’S LAUT BERCERITA (2017)
Kata Kunci:
Taboo, Laut Bercerita, Indonesian Literature, New Order, Moral Framework, Abjection, Islamic Ethics, Political Violence, Trauma Narrative, Javanese AdatAbstrak
Leila S. Chudori’s novel Laut Bercerita (2017), translated into English as The Sea Speaks His Name (2022), presents a harrowing account of the forced disappearances of Indonesian student activists during the final years of the New Order regime under President Suharto. This article examines the taboo language and morally transgressive themes embedded in the novel through the lens of Indonesian sociocultural moral framework, drawing on frameworks of literary taboo theory, postcolonial trauma studies, and Javanese-Islamic ethical constructs. The analysis identifies four primary domains of taboo: state-sanctioned violence and its narration, bodily transgression and sexual coercion, the disruption of familial and communal bonds, and the silencing of political speech. Employing a qualitative textual analysis informed by Kristeva’s concept of abjection and Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic violence, this study argues that Chudori’s strategic deployment of taboo language and imagery serves not as sensationalism but as a moral imperative, a form of bearing witness that challenges the normative Indonesian moral framework while simultaneously reaffirming it. Central to this analysis is the role of Islamic ethics and Javanese adat as twin pillars of Indonesian normativity that the novel must navigate. The novel’s transgressive content is ultimately framed within an ethics of remembrance that demands justice and restores human dignity to those erased by history.
