Learning about Literature Through Search Engine Terms
Again, as I have pointed many times before, I enjoy visiting the Search Engine Terms feature on my blog Moments in Literature, to get a sense of what my visitors are looking for nowadays, and the exercise is revealing. I get to see the frequency of search on certain search engine terms, most of which are names of writers, titles of books, and concepts in literature and writing in general. Once in a while some people get to the website through a search for my name (and that's cool too).
Recently, the majority of searches have been of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her new book The Thing Around Your Neck. I have featured partial reviews of the book on the website and I talk about Adichie whenever an opportunity presents itself.
After April 2, many hits were directed by searches of Brian Chikwava's Harare North, coupled with terms like "innovations in African Literature" "North Harare", "new Zimbabwean writing", and "new characters in Zimbabwean literature".
And lately, while "Chikwava", "Adichie", "Dangarembga", and "famous African Literature" continue to feature prominently, there has been an upsurge of search terms that feature variations of Petina Gappah and her works: "The Rise of Petina Gappah", Petina Gappah's New stories", "petina gappah review", :current zimbabwean literature-petina", "Elegy for Easterly," and "book of memories". And such terms drive traffic to the website.
There is definitely a need to write something on "method in African literature" because this is a frequent search term on the site, plus, famous characters in African literature. I already began a Google Knol which makes entries that discuss famous characters from African literature. I already started my entry on Tambudzai Sigauke (you can see why she had to be the first one) from Nervous Conditions. Okonkwo from Things Fall Apart will be next. Readers should then be able to make an entry into African literature through specific characters discussed in an encyclopedia, a Wiki, a Knol, etc.
Recently, the majority of searches have been of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her new book The Thing Around Your Neck. I have featured partial reviews of the book on the website and I talk about Adichie whenever an opportunity presents itself.
After April 2, many hits were directed by searches of Brian Chikwava's Harare North, coupled with terms like "innovations in African Literature" "North Harare", "new Zimbabwean writing", and "new characters in Zimbabwean literature".
And lately, while "Chikwava", "Adichie", "Dangarembga", and "famous African Literature" continue to feature prominently, there has been an upsurge of search terms that feature variations of Petina Gappah and her works: "The Rise of Petina Gappah", Petina Gappah's New stories", "petina gappah review", :current zimbabwean literature-petina", "Elegy for Easterly," and "book of memories". And such terms drive traffic to the website.
There is definitely a need to write something on "method in African literature" because this is a frequent search term on the site, plus, famous characters in African literature. I already began a Google Knol which makes entries that discuss famous characters from African literature. I already started my entry on Tambudzai Sigauke (you can see why she had to be the first one) from Nervous Conditions. Okonkwo from Things Fall Apart will be next. Readers should then be able to make an entry into African literature through specific characters discussed in an encyclopedia, a Wiki, a Knol, etc.
Comments
http://knol.google.com/k/emmanuel-sigauke/famous-characters-in-african-literature/