Madness in the Works of Stefan Zweig

On a sudden impulse, the Malaysian man grabs his kriss. Knife in hand, he suddenly lunges into the crowd. He runs frantically, his nerves on edge and his blood boiling. As he runs, he stabs dozens of people with his dagger. Eventually, he is caught by survivors who shoot him dead. 'He' is the furious, dishonoured Amok, who can no longer bear the burden of British colonisation. Several Malaysians, overcome by despair, lose all control and embark on this race towards death. However, what would happen if, through a combination of circumstances, the British colonist were to be overcome by this insurmountable obsession? This is what Stefan Zweig imagines and depicts in his short story 'Amok, or The Madman of Malaysia'. The Austrian writer invites us to follow the misadventures of a doctor who is a colonist on Malaysian soil but colonised by the lands of passion. Obsessed with the image of a woman who is as unattainable on land as she is at sea, the protagonist races like a raving madman towards his doom. This research paper aims to examine this scenario more closely to see how literature deals with pathological cases.