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Žižek extends Jameson’s conception of the vanishing mediator to encompass the same realm as Badiou’s notion of the event. It is the moment when “truth” emerges (TK: 188). The vanishing mediator does not, then, refer to “those other- wise invisible or overlooked moments in major historical processes” as Rex Butler defines it (Butler 2005: 76). On the contrary, and perfectly dialectically, as Žižek himself defines the dialectic, it refers to those moments in history that one has to look at twice, as it were, in order to see that they really are precursors to the very thing that spells their end. In The Sublime Object of Ideology, Žižek stakes out this conception of the dialectic, which holds true throughout his work, with reference to Jane Austen, whom he describes as “perhaps the only counterpart to Hegel in literature”(SO: 62). Misrecognition, he argues, is the source of truth in Pride and Prejudice: it is only because they begin by failing to see each other in their true light that Darcy and Elizabeth are able to “work through” their respec- tive character flaws (Darcy’s false pride and Elizabeth’s equally false prejudice) and arrive at mutual understanding. In each case, both pride and prejudice can be described as vanishing mediators because they give rise to their opposite, namely truth.

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