Escapando caracteres especiales en Python [tip]

Supongamos que tenemos un texto como este:

Bla
blablabla\ /
blabla

Y queremos representarlo todo en una línea sin perder información, como hacerlo?

---

def miniscape(s):
    return str([s])[2:-2]

---

Resultado:
\nBla\nblablabla\\ /\nblabla\n

Y para darle la vuelta?

---

def miniunscape(s):
    i = 0
    while True:
        try:
            x = s.index("\\x", i)
            if not((x > 0) and (s[x-1] == "\\")):
                s = s[:x]+chr(int(s[x+2:x+4],16))+s[x+4:]
            i = x + 1
        except:
            break

    reptable = [("\\\\","\\"),("\\n","\n"),("\\'","'"),("\\a","\a"),
                ("\\b","\b"),("\\f","\f"),("\\r","\r"),("\\t","\t"),
                ("\\v","\v")]

    for r in reptable:
        i = 0
        while True:
            try:
                x = s.index(r[0], i)
                if not((x > 0) and (s[x-1] == "\\")):
                    s = s[:x]+r[1]+s[x+2:]
                i = x + 1
            except:
                break

    return s

---

En pastebin [ http://pastebin.com/5uvf3tBK ]

Y ya está, nos vemos