Riley Clever | 2025 I.S. Symposium

Name: Riley Clever
Title: Agency, Autonomy, and the Fairy Tale: Exploring Sleeping Beauty
Majors: English; Philosophy
Minor: Spanish
Advisors: Claire Eager; Garrett Thomson

This project considers how to conceptualize autonomy and why it is important that we are careful in this conception. Popular conceptions of autonomy include ideas of control which often fail to recognize the intrinsic value of agents. Self-respect turns autonomy back to the capabilities of the agent and recognizes the agent’s intrinsic value. In the final two chapters, I apply these conceptions to six versions of Sleeping Beauty to consider how certain conceptions can alter the messaging surrounding autonomy in each tale. I consider three classic versions of the tale: “Sun, Moon, and Talia” by Giambattista Basile, “The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods” by Charles Perrault, and “Little Briar Rose” by the Grimm brothers. In the final chapter, I consider three modern retellings: Sleeping Beauty film by Disney, Spindle’s End by Robin McKinley, and Once Upon a Dream: A Twisted Tale by Liz Braswell.

Posted in Symposium 2025 on May 1, 2025.