The theory of intertextuality as formulated by French scholar, Julia Kristeva, is much too misunderstood in critical circles. In many instances, the line of thinking is that intertextuality is simply a matter of influence – that is, the influence of one author on another or of one text (book) or more on another book or other books, et cetera. This study, therefore, purposes to understand Kristeva’s theory of intertextuality; and, what is more, to unearth the central meaning of the theory, and the role of culture in the discourses. As a consequence, the full range of the theory, enumerated under these headings: The Novel as an Utterance, the Symbol as Ideologeme, the Sign as Ideologeme, Text Production, Intertextuality: An Analysis of Utterances, are all duly taken into account in this reading. In the end, it is laid bare that indeed the meaning of intertextuality does not in the main reside in the general notion of influence associated with the theory, although influence is implicated in it in principle. Rather, it is uncovered that the thrust of intertextuality is really what Kristeva designates as citation and narration, citation being dialogue and therefore the speech act of the character and narration being writing and hence the speech act of the narrator in the text of the novel.