In an age of computer-mediated communication, the verbal visual elements of language are being remixed within new systems of codification. Against this backdrop, this paper will challenge the “purist” approach to comparative literature by incorporating Egyptian and Korean composite media practices within a comparative perspective. This endeavor recalls the past controversy surrounding the comparison of literatures written in local vernaculars alongside those in standard languages. Currently, the relevant issue pertains to the feasibility of including digital composites as new processes of language codification in a comparative perspective that transcends geohistorical and visual verbal divides. This proposal addresses the significant debate surrounding whether Arabic is a fixed or evolving language, an intervention that determines the inclusion or exclusion of other languages, epistemologies, and methodologies in the study of its expansion.

Visual verbal creations in Arabic and Korean languages go back several centuries. The Hieroglyphs, Amazigh scripts, and Korean calligraphy predated Arabic calligraphy, in merging visual verbal writing systems that have evolved since their early phases. They merge technology and art, mathematics and text, as seen in contemporary design. Based on these premises, current digital composites by Korean and creators in Arabic,who blend software, media narratives, and metafiction can be considered as evolving elements of assembly and dispersion, reminiscent of the art of calligraphy. This suggests a rhizomatic irreducibility that transforms reading as an interactive process.

The verbal visual divide has increasingly been challenged by philosophers and critics since the mid-twentieth century. In Of Grammatology, Jacques Derrida, considers ideogrammatic, pictographic, phonetic or alphabetic marks—along with the digital images—as manifestations of “arche-writing” (1976: 9-10). In Picture Theory, W. J. T. Mitchell posits that language functions as a visual verbal medium, an imaging process wherein theory and practice converge. This interplay fosters and exchange between the cognitive and the hermeneutic (Mitchell 1994, 33). Recognizing that literature is now regarded as a medium—serving as a mode of communication—it has been mediated through the computerized memory banks that facilitate software intermediation systems. In Deep-Remixability (2007), Lev Manovich discusses the evolution of what he terms “hybrid media,” transitioning to “media remixability,” and presently as “composites,” which refer to the co-presence of multiple media (2007). Consequently, modes of reading through software intermediations becomes a means of engaging with theory in practice or understanding the epistemological within the contextual. This approach enables the reader to communicate with diverse Korean and Arabic post-media creators as they challenge institutionalized images that have lost their invigorating potential.

In recent years, there has been a clear increase in digital travel contents produced by young Arabs who have devoted all or part of their time to travelling and making videos which aimed primarily at YouTube viewers, after the latter became a major source of income for many of them.

The present paper focuses on the East/East (or Middle East/Far East) cultural interaction achieved by young Arab travellers who travelled to South Korea and were able to get to know its personal culture very close through videos posted on their YouTube channels. These travellers embody the journey in its new dimensions, which have been shaped by globalization and technological development that enabled them to document their personal travel experiences, which, in fact, turned into cultural experiences that can serve as initial grounds for studying Arabs’ constructed images of Korean culture and its people. Among the issues to be analyzed in this paper are: (1) the meaning of new Arab travellers, and examples of those who have arrived in South Korea, (2) the choice of Korea as a destination, (3) South Korea through Arab eyes, (4) reception of Korean culture in the Arab world, and (5) finally challenges. Among those new Arab travellers whose videos will be explored in this paper is a Jordanian YouTuber named Joe HATTAB, a Saudi man named Ahmed ALSHAMMARI, a young Moroccan woman named Sara.

The popularity of Korean culture in recent years, has attracted the attention of the Arab viewers and travellers who wanted to get closer to its culture. This is why South Korea was one of the first destinations chosen by a number of young Arab travellers to start the adventure of travelling and introducing the local culture to the Arab audience. Thus, the channels of these travellers turned into the most popular and accessible source of knowledge and culture among Arab and foreign viewers.

The elements that new Arab travellers focus on, while documenting their trips to South Korea, reflect a variety of cultural and other aspects that they find interesting. The videos, filmed by these travellers on YouTube, about South Korea, are of great interest to the Arab viewer, which is reflected in the high viewership rates, and the great interaction between viewers and travellers through various comments and questions.

Overall, the new Arab travellers on YouTube are a cultural phenomenon that reflects the technological development and the growing interest in discovering the world and adopting the culture of travel for many people who see it not only as a way to entertain themselves, but also as a way to understand the world and promote critical thinking based on rejecting intolerance and accepting the difference which is the basis of life.

Since the late twentieth century, Arab comparative literary studies have undergone a significant shift in direction and focus, fostering the exploration of new research areas and the ambition to establish further interdisciplinary domains. One of the emerging horizons in Arab comparativism is its interaction with South Korean literature and culture. This development is driven by the growing economic and cultural exchanges between South Korea and the Arab countries, as well as the widespread influence of the Korean cultural wave, Hallyu, in the Arab world. This highlights the intricate relationship between literary and cultural capital and economic power.

Despite an awareness of its significance, Arab comparative studies of South Korean literary and cultural productions remain in their early stages, represented primarily by the individual efforts of a limited number of Egyptian scholars interested in imagology, translation studies, women's writing, and bilingual comparisons. The scarcity of Arab specialists proficient in Korean within the field of comparative literature contrasts with the more established contemporary Korean comparative studies that engage with the Arab world, within an interdisciplinary framework that reflects South Korea’s openness to engaging with global history and culture.This is due to the fact that South Korean comparativists have benefited from the institutionalized interest in Arabic studies since the mid-1960s and early 1970s.

In alignment with the theme of the Arab panel, this paper aims to expand the scope of emerging Arab-Korean comparative studies for the benefit of young Arab comparativists who are currently eagerly learning the Korean language in all Arab countries including Morocco .It seeks to explore new areas of inquiry, including the intersection of cultural and creative industries with technology, as well as comparative analyses of the aesthetic and thematic foundations that shape the contemporary Arab imaginary in the context of the socio-historical Arab- Korean transitions. It will specifically examine:

1. The relationship between transnational texts, transcultural identity, and sustainable development in the digital age, with a focus on Ibn Baṭṭūṭa's Journey in the Korean context, the first Moroccan application for Korean language and culture, and the recently published book Teaching Korean in Arabic (Tangier, Morocco).

2. The evolving sources of Arab literary creativity, illustrated through Mrs. Korea by Abir Hamdi (Egypt) and Korean Scheherazade Tales by Inès Abbassi (Tunisia).