Paper short abstract:

In my presentation I try to analyse how and for what reasons and latent folklore concepts were Tiboldi, a 19th century folklore collector marginalized. The name of Tiboldi in the folklore literature of the mid 20th century comes up as the synonym for a bad collector.

Paper long abstract:

In my presentation I deal with István Tiboldi, a 19th century folklore collector, and with the process how researchers from different ages tried to construct a good or bad collector out of him. István Tiboldi operated as a Unitarian teacher in Transylvania, and in the 1850's he joined the collector network led (mostly by correspondence) by the Unitarian pastor of Kolozsvár, later bishop, János Kriza. As the result of the research only one book was published (Vadrózsák [Wild Roses], 1863), the collected texts mostly remained in manuscript. The name of Tiboldi in the folklore literature of the mid 20th century comes up as the synonym for a bad collector.

In my presentation I try to analyse how and for what reasons and latent folklore concepts were Tiboldi marginalized. Many things contributed to his rejection: his usage of other, earlier folklore collections (which were also thought to be unauthentic and not folkish enough by the 20th century folkloristic public opinion), his choice of informants (with preconceptions about the good informant and the good storyteller), and how his collected and submitted tale texts met the expectations of the leader of the collection, Kriza (and then those of the 20th century folklorists).