diff --git a/rest_framework/utils/formatting.py b/rest_framework/utils/formatting.py
index 6d53aed11..bca697ae4 100644
--- a/rest_framework/utils/formatting.py
+++ b/rest_framework/utils/formatting.py
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
 from django.utils.html import escape
 from django.utils.safestring import mark_safe
+from django.utils.encoding import force_text
+
 from rest_framework.compat import apply_markdown
 import re
 
@@ -28,6 +30,7 @@ def dedent(content):
     as it fails to dedent multiline docstrings that include
     unindented text on the initial line.
     """
+    content = force_text(content)
     whitespace_counts = [len(line) - len(line.lstrip(' '))
                          for line in content.splitlines()[1:] if line.lstrip()]
 
diff --git a/tests/test_description.py b/tests/test_description.py
index 1e481f06c..25bee19b4 100644
--- a/tests/test_description.py
+++ b/tests/test_description.py
@@ -98,6 +98,28 @@ class TestViewNamesAndDescriptions(TestCase):
             pass
         self.assertEqual(MockView().get_view_description(), '')
 
+    def test_view_description_can_be_promise(self):
+        """
+        Ensure a view may have a docstring that is actually a lazily evaluated
+        class that can be converted to a string.
+
+        See: https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/1708
+        """
+        # use a mock object instead of gettext_lazy to ensure that we can't end
+        # up with a test case string in our l10n catalog
+        class MockLazyStr(object):
+            def __init__(self, string):
+                self.s = string
+            def __str__(self):
+                return self.s
+            def __unicode__(self):
+                return self.s
+
+        class MockView(APIView):
+            __doc__ = MockLazyStr(u"a gettext string")
+
+        self.assertEqual(MockView().get_view_description(), u'a gettext string')
+
     def test_markdown(self):
         """
         Ensure markdown to HTML works as expected.