Hi,
Can you please help me out on an academic assignment? which classical and modern works of arts (famous novels, plays, poems, paintings, sculptures ext.) feature distinct libertarian/classical liberal themes?
This is probably one of the most obvious:
Depicting the Roman goddess Libertas.
Atlas Shrugged, maybe; few would call it a work of art, but it is very famous. Also, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert A. Heinlein, and maybe 1984 (counts as Literature) by George Orwell, and maybe his Animal Farm. Less famous, but still Liberal: The Probability Broach, by L. Neil Smith. It's set in an alternative history where North America is the North American Confederacy, a Liberal state.
Orwell was a socialist, so according to traditional thought 1984 cannot be thought of as a liberal work, although Orwell's brand of socialism was actually remarkably close to the spirit of classical liberalism.
It's hard to pinpoint exactly what constitutes classically liberal in the area of art. Either it's hard to pinpoint any classical liberal ideas at all through the medium, or every case of humanism and romanticism could be considered expressions of the classical liberal notions of free will, human choice, and the importance of secular achievement.
every case of humanism and romanticism could be considered expressions of the classical liberal notions
+1