Writing about nineteenth-century women's travel writing, Lila Harper notes that the four women she discussed used their own names, in contrast with the nineteenth-century female novelists who either published anonymously or used male pseudonyms. The novelists doubtless realized that they were breaking boundaries, whereas three of the four daring, solitary travelers espoused traditional values, eschewing radicalism and women's movements. Whereas the female novelists criticized their society, the female travelers seemed content to leave society as it was while accomplishing their own liberation. In other words, they lived a contradiction. For the subjects of Harper's study, solitude in both the private and public spheres prevailed—a solitude that conferred authority, hitherto a male prerogative, but that also precluded any collective action or female solidarity.
Answer:
E. While traveling alone in the nineteenth-century was considered a radical act for a woman, the nineteenth-century solitary female travelers generally held conventional views.
Explanation:
What best characterizes the "contradiction" that the author refers to is "While traveling alone in the nineteenth-century was considered a radical act for a woman, the nineteenth-century solitary female travelers generally held conventional views."
This is evident in the passage where it was written that "Whereas the female novelists criticized their society, the female travelers seemed content to leave society as it was while accomplishing their own liberation."
