Translating the myth: Şahmaran and the production of value across Turkish media

Abstract

Abstract This study examines the positioning and legitimation of the cultural figure of Şahmaran (Shahmaran) as a process of value transformation across three audiovisual and institutional regimes: artistic production, heritage-oriented discourse, and platform-mediated popular media. Drawing on Bourdieusian field theory, the research argues that as this mythological figure moves across different media, it is translated and recoded in relation to the particular institutional conditions, aesthetic conventions, and mechanisms of value attribution that shape its production and circulation. While Bourdieu conceptualized the transformation of meaning through changes in national and institutional fields, contemporary media environments require this framework to be combined with attention to media form as a structuring force in capital conversion. Bringing together these perspectives, the article maps the mechanisms of consecration and value attribution in Zülfü Livaneli’s Şahmaran (1993), the documentary Yarısı İnsan Yarısı Yılan ( Half Human Half Snake ) (2011), and the Netflix series Şahmaran (2023–2024).