A number of shear-flow phenomena can be explained qualitatively if turbulence is regarded as a continuous viscoelastic medium with respect to its action on a mean field. Conditions are sought under which the analogy is quantitative, and it is found that the turbulence must be fine-grained and the mean field weak. For geometrical convenience the turbulence is assumed to be nearly homogeneous and isotropic so that body forces are required to maintain it. The turbulence is found to respond initially to an arbitrary deformation as an elastic medium, in which Reynolds stress is linearly proportional to strain. Three processes that cause the resulting Reynolds stress to relax are distinguished: viscous diffusion, body-force agitation and non-linear scrambling. It is argued that, regardless of which process dominates, Reynolds stress evolves in a continuously changing mean field according to a viscoelastic constitutive law, relating stress to deformation history by means of a scalar memory function. The argument is carried through analytically for weak turbulence, in which non-linear scrambling is negligible, and the memory function is computed in terms of the wave-number-frequency spectrum of the background turbulence. In the course of the analysis, a new type of Reynolds stress arises related to the passage of the turbulence through its sustaining environment of body forces. It is found that the mean field must be surprisingly weak for this ‘translation stress’ to be negligible. Applications of the viscoelasticity theory of turbulent shear flow are discussed in which body forces and therefore translation stress are absent.