Imagining Indonesia before and after Yugoslavia(s)

In the interwar period, two Serbian writers envisioned a territory that would later become Indonesia, despite never having visited. In 1920, Miloš Crnjanski penned the poem "Sumatra," accompanied by an explanatory note that birthed a new artistic movement - Sumatraism. His subsequent works vividly outlined this avant-garde movement, emphasizing nature's potency, escape from post-WWI "civilization" horrors, humanity's place in the world, and their connection to both earthly and cosmic forces. Meanwhile, a decade later in 1930, Stanislav Krakov recounted a journey through the "fantastical, wondrous East" during an exhibition visit in Amsterdam, Netherlands, showcasing the crown jewel of Dutch colonial holdings. While Krakov did not reference Crnjanski's Sumatra, he collectively labeled the entire Dutch East Indies (Java, Sumatra, Bali, New Guinea) as "Sumatra." Post-WWII, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia transitioned into a socialist federation, ushering in a new imaginary geography. Indonesia was viewed as an equal partner in constructing "peaceful coexistence" within the global Non-Aligned Movement. This work aims to illustrate how these early imaginings influenced subsequent ones and critically reassesses this cultural legacy in modern perspectives on Indonesia. Can Serbia, itself subject to Orientalization (Balkanization) in the Western imaginary geography, genuinely conceive alternative worlds, especially given its destructive, islamophobic inclinations displayed to the world and its immediate neighbors in the last decade of the twentieth century?