I know this is late and I feel like I preface every week's entry with an apology.
I'm interested in the fact that Kartini could only get her views about imperialism and patriarchy across by maintaining connections with the structures that oppressed her. I suppose that for her, the most logical (and probably effective) way to express her dissent was through writing, but it seems that grassroots organizing (did that exist then in the same way it does now?) might have been a way to register her disappointment with the Dutch and even certain Javanese structures without colluding with the enemy, as it were. Of course she seems to separate Stella Zeehandelaar and Western education from Dutch imperialism so maybe she concieves of "the enemy" in an entirely different way than I do.
As other people have mentioned, some level of internalized oppression seems to be at work. Kartini resents the that the Javanese are treated as inferiors by the Dutch while at the same time, she constantly praises Dutch learning and culture. Like other people have suggested, her self-deprecation may be a strategy for acceptance of her rhetoric. Of course I don't really now. I don't think sarcasm and subtlety translate particularily well.
What do people make of her choice to write in Dutch? I realize that she has a Dutch pen pal, but the theory and radical ideas that she is formulating might have been useful to other Javanese women. Did she share these ideas with her peers in Java?