Women’s literary writing as a gateway to filmmaking: adaptation, screenwriting and gender in Swedish classical cinema

Abstract This study examines women’s screenwriting in the Swedish film industry in the period from the 1930s to the early 1960s, focussing on adaptation practices and professional mobility between the film and literary sectors. By combining a data survey of feature film adaptations with regard to gender, origin, and date of the literary precursor with analyses of production records, the analysis sheds light on how the film industry integrated writers from the literary sphere in screenwriting practices. In doing so, the study answers the question of how the relationship between the film and literature spheres influenced the opportunities available to women in screenwriting and how it shaped their authorial agency and status as filmmakers.