FRANKENSTEIN THESIS WINS DRUPA PRIZE
In what may be seen as an apt subject given what the printing industry has been through in the past few years, the 2022 drupa prize has been awarded for thesis on Frankenstein.
Image - drupa ©Hojabr Riahi
Presented every year since 1978, Messe Düsseldorf has awarded the drupa Prize, that comes with €6,000 prize money, for an outstanding thesis written by young scientists in the Faculty of Philosophy of Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf.
This year’s winner, Friederike Danebrock, was awarded the drupa Prize 2022 for her thesis “Frankenstein. On Making Fiction”.
The Prize was presented by Wolfram Diener, president and CEO of Messe Düsseldorf, Erhard Wienkamp, managing director at Messe Düsseldorf, and Prof Dr Anja Steinbeck, rector of Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, in a formal ceremony at Messe Düsseldorf yesterday.
Dr Andreas Pleßke, CEO of Koenig & Bauer AG and chairman of the drupa committee, said, “I congratulate Friederike Danebrock cordially on receiving the drupa Prize 2022 and endorse this excellent decision. I am happy that drupa also extends its activities beyond the print industry, by promoting special talents of the Faculty of Philosophy with our Prize.”
Friederike Danebrock's thesis, which was awarded summa cum laude (with the highest distinction) is dedicated to Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein (written in 1818) and selected adaptations. The world-famous story of the young Swiss man Viktor Frankenstein, who creates an artificial human being, is one of the best-known examples of the horror genre influencing literature and popular culture alike.
Danebrock starts her thesis from the observation that the “Frankenstein complex” – the collection of adaptations and rewritings grouped around Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein – is characterised by a remarkable coincidence of theme and practice: we are dealing with a story about reproduction that is itself extraordinarily reproductive. The central character – the monster – and the story in which it appears are subject to the same existential process.
The Faculty of Philosophy at Heinrich Heine University explained the reasoning for her nomination for the drupa Prize, saying her award-winning work is convincing because of its innovative approach to cultural theory, developing a theory of aesthetic fiction, by incorporating different disciplinary approaches.