Screenwriting, adaptation and reincarnation: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's self-adapted screenplays

Referring to the self-adapted screenplays of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, this article argues for a conceptualization of adaptation as a collaborative continuum. To do this I develop Kamilla Elliott's 'Incarnational Concept' of adaptation and propose a reincarnational concept. Jhabvala adapted her novels The Householder ([1960] 2004) and Heat and Dust (1975) to screenplays as well as Three Continents (1987) and the short story 'How I Became a Holy Mother' (1976), although the latter two were unmade. Jhabvala's self-adapted screenplays attempt to retain control of certain aspects of adaptation; however, her predominant approach is to encourage collaborative input from filmmakers and the rewriting of her stories. Therefore, these insights into Jhabvala's open approach to self-adapting demonstrate screenwriting and adaptation as collaborative, continual processes befitting a model of reincarnation.