Criticizes R. Scholes' application of French semiotics, clarifies C. Peirce's and F. Saussure's concepts of semiotics as applied to cultural semiotics, examines the Internal Field of Reference, and asserts an interpretive relationship between cultural text and episteme. Discusses intertextuality and concludes great implications for literary study by privileging the literary text as a microtext within a specific cultural macrotext. (JK)