The published screenplay - A new literary genre?

The number of screenplays published and sold on the book market has constan tly increased in recent years. Whereas the strength of the screenplay as a market factor is now indisputable, the question whether it already constitu tes a literary genre is far from resolved. Earlier discussions of the statu s of the screenplay have tended to emphasize its low artistic value and sub servience to the film industry, but there are also arguments pointing to th e screenplay's autonomy as a text type and its merits as an art form. The f ollowing discussion takes into consideration three factors that seem to det ermine the literariness of the film scenario: the position of screenwriting in the sociological system of literature, the screenplay's intermediality, and its textual qualities themselves. These aspects are illustrated with s pecial attention to Harold Pinter's The Servant and David Hare's Wetherby.