diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 8622c0713..d64a1f712 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@ Release 0.6.6 (in development)
 
 * #387: Fix the display of search results in ``dirhtml`` output.
 
+* #376: In autodoc, fix display of parameter defaults containing
+  backslashes.
+
 * #370: Fix handling of complex list item labels in LaTeX output.
 
 * #374: Make the ``doctest_path`` config value of the doctest
diff --git a/sphinx/ext/autodoc.py b/sphinx/ext/autodoc.py
index 676740671..084ae1552 100644
--- a/sphinx/ext/autodoc.py
+++ b/sphinx/ext/autodoc.py
@@ -813,7 +813,10 @@ class FunctionDocumenter(ModuleLevelDocumenter):
                 argspec = inspect.getargspec(self.object.__init__)
                 if argspec[0]:
                     del argspec[0][0]
-        return inspect.formatargspec(*argspec)
+        args = inspect.formatargspec(*argspec)
+        # escape backslashes for reST
+        args = args.replace('\\', '\\\\')
+        return args
 
     def document_members(self, all_members=False):
         pass