--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -29,10 +29,10 @@
  * Text templates now default to rendering as plain text; it is no longer
    necessary to explicitly specify the "text" method to the `render()` or
    `serialize()` method of the generated markup stream.
- * XInclude elements in markup templates now support the `parse` attribute; when
-   set to "xml" (the default), the include is processed as before, but when set
-   to "text", the included template is parsed as a text template using the new
-   syntax (ticket #101).
+ * XInclude elements in markup templates now support the `parse` attribute;
+   when set to "xml" (the default), the include is processed as before, but
+   when set to "text", the included template is parsed as a text template using
+   the new syntax (ticket #101).
  * Python code blocks inside match templates are now executed (ticket #155).
  * The template engine plugin no longer adds the `default_doctype` when the
    `fragment` parameter is `True`.
@@ -40,6 +40,10 @@
    #150).
  * The `py:replace` directive can now also be used as an element, with an
    attribute named `value` (ticket #144).
+ * The `TextSerializer` class no longer strips all markup in text by default,
+   so that it is still possible to use the Genshi `escape` function even with
+   text templates. The old behavior is available via the `strip_markup` option
+   of the serializer (ticket #146).
 
 
 Version 0.4.4

--- a/genshi/output.py
+++ b/genshi/output.py
@@ -436,20 +436,29 @@
     <Hello!>
 
     If text events contain literal markup (instances of the `Markup` class),
-    tags or entities are stripped from the output:
+    that markup is by default passed through unchanged:
     
-    >>> elem = tag.div(Markup('<a href="foo">Hello!</a><br/>'))
-    >>> print elem
-    <div><a href="foo">Hello!</a><br/></div>
-    >>> print ''.join(TextSerializer()(elem.generate()))
-    Hello!
+    >>> elem = tag.div(Markup('<a href="foo">Hello &amp; Bye!</a><br/>'))
+    >>> print elem.generate().render(TextSerializer)
+    <a href="foo">Hello &amp; Bye!</a><br/>
+    
+    You can use the `strip_markup` to change this behavior, so that tags and
+    entities are stripped from the output (or in the case of entities,
+    replaced with the equivalent character):
+
+    >>> print elem.generate().render(TextSerializer, strip_markup=True)
+    Hello & Bye!
     """
 
+    def __init__(self, strip_markup=False):
+        self.strip_markup = strip_markup
+
     def __call__(self, stream):
+        strip_markup = self.strip_markup
         for event in stream:
             if event[0] is TEXT:
                 data = event[1]
-                if type(data) is Markup:
+                if strip_markup and type(data) is Markup:
                     data = data.striptags().stripentities()
                 yield unicode(data)