Following his Abitur, Alt studied 1979 to 1984 German, political science, history and philosophy at the Freie Universitaet Berlin, where he received his doctorate in 1984 and accomplished his habilitation in 1993.

[4] Alt's publications since 1985 include 19 monographs, more than 100 essays, 25 reviews, several editions, six anthologies on German-language and European literature of the 17th to 18th and 20th centuries.

His research focuses on questions of the historicity and normativity of poetological and aesthetic systems of order, the history of tragedy, the relationship between knowledge and literature in the early modern period (dream, imagination, hermetism, paradox) and the reflection of political theology in texts of the 17th century.

Since 2005, Alt has regularly published articles on issues of science and education policy in regional and national daily newspapers, including the Frankfurter Allgemeine, the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the Berliner Tagesspiegel.

In 2008, he was awarded the Opus Magnum scholarship from the Volkswagen and Thyssen foundations as part of the "Pro Geisteswissenschaften" initiative for the completion of his book project Aesthetics of Evil.