In the work we deal with the problematic transposition of Nietzschean concepts of dance, elevation and historical memory in the works written by two authors from different national traditions: Kraljevo written by the Croatian author Miroslav Krleža, and Horo written by the Bulgarian author Anton Strašimirov. In both works the authors deal with problems of a specific cultural and national crisis. Horo is a grotesque representation of the historical events connected with the September Uprising which, as a civil war, represents a crisis of the stable national identity. The disintegration of the national unity results in the distortion of the linear temporal continuity incarnated in the image of a family genealogy, followed by the loss of the f...