In this article I discuss different approaches to the epic in the reception of Pencho Slaveykov’s poem „Bloody song” (1911–1913). A focus on experiments with the genre can be observed. In the first reviews of the poem there is no evidence of any uniform criteria of genre. They are very contradictory when formulating what should an epic form contain. I consider Slaveikov’s and Kristev’s perceptions of epic. Moving the focus from the genre to the language can show other qualities of the text: its mnemonic potential embodied in the gestures of appropriation of tradition. The „modeling of the Self” is associated with working in the realm of language. The acts of rewriting contain codes of modern experience which has to do with memory of the yet not occurred.