This course examines Jacobean theatre in the context of the manifold political crisis that emerged in early seventeenth-century England, originating in James Stuart’s attempt to introduce principles of absolute monarchy to the government of the realm. The focus is on the ways in which the specific plays by Webster, Tourneur and Middleton register oppositional discourses that, while partly or seemingly adhering to the prevalent ideological dictates, at the same time radically question them. Gender representations emerge as the dominant concern since they inscribe a crisis in sexual relationships as a result of the general destabilisation of values.