Alessandra Basti
Alessandra Basti obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Pisa and a Master’s degree in Theoretical Philosophy from the University of Turin. During the Master’s program, she also studied at the Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena. Throughout both her Bachelor’s and Master’s studies, her work focused on applied phenomenology, aesthetics, and the philosophy of literature.
She is currently a PhD scholarship holder in the “Integrated Track” program at a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School of the University of Cologne, and she is conducting her doctoral research at the Husserl Archive in Cologne under the supervision of Prof. Thiemo Breyer. Her PhD project is carried out under a cotutelle agreement with Prof. Carola Barbero (University of Turin).
Her primary research interests include phenomenological aesthetics, philosophy of literature, and the philosophy of fantasy and imagination.
Email: alessandra.basti@outlook.it
Research Project
(working title) “Being moved by a Lesewelt: a phenomenological investigation on the embodied reader and their affective responses to literature.”
The research project develops a phenomenological approach to the literary work and to the experience of reading, drawing heavily on Edmund Husserl’s analyses of imagination and phantasy, with particular emphasis on the later writings collected in Hua XXIII. The project aims to contribute to a phenomenology of literature that clarifies the specific mode of consciousness involved in engaging with fictional worlds, while remaining grounded in Husserl’s broader account of intentionality, modification, and representification. A central point of reference is Roman Ingarden’s theory of the literary work as an intentional object constituted through the reader’s acts, alongside Wolfgang Iser’s phenomenology of reading, which conceives reception as a necessary moment in the completion of the work. Through Edmund Husserl’s analyses of imagination and phantasy, the project explores how readers move between the shared life-world and fictional worlds while maintaining a form of double intentionality: remaining anchored in reality while simultaneously inhabiting a Lesewelt. Fictional emotions are thus understood as embodied practices that enable a temporary allocentric shift of perspective, rather than as mere by-products of cognition or imagination. A further aim of the project is to examine the relationship between literary empathy and social empathy, critically engaging with the hypothesis that affective engagement with fiction can influence real-world attitudes and behaviors. Particular emphasis is placed on the distinctive, one-sided character of literary empathy, in which readers are affectively involved with characters who do not reciprocate or acknowledge their presence. Finally, the project combines theoretical analysis with close readings of modern and contemporary literary works in which narrative strategies intensify affective immersion and place the reader’s agency under tension. These texts provide a privileged testing ground for a phenomenological account of being moved by fictional worlds.
Conferences and Workshops Organisation:
2025 Organiser of the a.r.t.e.s Forum “The invisible Cities” at the University of Cologne with Israel García, Annika Häberlein, Gian Marco Hölk, Moritz Nicklas, Alexander Rüter
2025 Co-Organizer of the Conference “Making sense of the aesthetic: A Phenomenological Inquiry into Art and the Legacy of the Milan School” with Sara Dameno
Presentations:
2024 Presentation at the Applied Phenomenology WIP (online), “Being moved by a Lesewelt: a phenomenological approach to our aesthetic practices as affectively engaged readers.”
2026 Presentation in the colloquium Phänomenologische Werkstatt of the Husserl Archive at Husserl Archive Cologne, “From the Lebenswelt to the Lesewelt: Towards a Phenomenology of Literature.”
2026 Presentation at the conference Intergenerational Cities. Navigating Urban Lifeworlds between Past and Future in Ascona, Switzerland, “Atmospheric Legacies: A New-Phenomenological Study of Intergenerational Memory in Cologne's Aachener Berg and Kalkberg”, with Daniel Gallano