On Feminism and Nationalism Kartini's Letters to Stella Zeehandelaar, 1899-1903

The letters Raden Ajeng Kartini wrote from her home in East Java to Stella Zeehandelaar, the 'modern girl' in Amsterdam, are amongst the most powerful and stirring of the many letters she wrote in the last four years of her life. They express both her passionate hope and powerful aspiration to bring about change - in her own life, to the position of Javanese women, to colonised Java - and reflect the deep disappointment she experienced and the compromises she had to make. Inspired by the European feminist writing of her day, these letters reveal how Kartini transformed these ideas into a manifesto for the emancipation of Javanese women and a platform for the decolonisation of Java. They trace the path from personal aspiration to the liberation of all women, from a concern for the position of women, to a radical assessment of colonial politics. This fully revised second edition is prefaced by an historical introduction and a foreword by the Indonesian writer Goenawan Mohamad, and includes the two formal memoranda on women's education written by Kartini in 1903.