“En el tocar está la virtud”: The Eros of Healing in La Lozana andaluza

This article examines eroticized medical discourse in the novel La Lozana andaluza (1528) in order to argue that the protagonist appropriates humoral teachings regarding the hygienic use of coitus in such a way as to present transactional sex as a medical service. While other critics have examined Lozana’s role as a diseasing healer in the past, they have tended to regard the sexual nature of her healing as metaphorical. In contrast, this article demonstrates that her role as prostitute is integral to her medical interventions. Lozana’s eroticized textual encounters with medical professionals and patients show that Delicado appropriates the language of academic medicine to highlight the female body’s potential to facilitate male corporeal wellbeing.