import csv
import io

row = ['one\nelement']

#csv.register_dialect( "mydialect", escapechar='\\' )
csv.register_dialect( "mydialect", escapechar='\\', quoting=csv.QUOTE_NONE, 
        lineterminator='\n' )
dialect = "mydialect"

buf = io.StringIO()
writer = csv.writer(buf, dialect)
writer.writerow(row)

buf.seek(0)
reader = csv.reader(buf, dialect)
for newrow in reader:
    pass

assert row == newrow