Hunting for civilization: Marie de France and the sociology of romance -- Economies of romance: systems of value in Chrétien de Troyes -- States of union: maiestas, marriage, and the politics of coercion in the Canterbury tales -- Missing bodies and changed forms: literal metamorphosis in Petrarch's Rime sparse -- Playing for time: generic disunities and ludic dimensions in Romeo and Juliet -- Legends of the fall: epic flights and indecorous descents in Paradise lost.