diff --git a/django/views/generic/detail.py b/django/views/generic/detail.py
index d4fb37124d..4b5281745e 100644
--- a/django/views/generic/detail.py
+++ b/django/views/generic/detail.py
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 from django.core.exceptions import ImproperlyConfigured, ObjectDoesNotExist
 from django.http import Http404
-from django.utils.encoding import smart_str
 from django.utils.translation import ugettext as _
 from django.views.generic.base import TemplateResponseMixin, ContextMixin, View
 
@@ -81,7 +80,7 @@ class SingleObjectMixin(ContextMixin):
         if self.context_object_name:
             return self.context_object_name
         elif hasattr(obj, '_meta'):
-            return smart_str(obj._meta.object_name.lower())
+            return obj._meta.object_name.lower()
         else:
             return None
 
diff --git a/django/views/generic/list.py b/django/views/generic/list.py
index 9f6e0e130c..ae45fd2218 100644
--- a/django/views/generic/list.py
+++ b/django/views/generic/list.py
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 from django.core.paginator import Paginator, InvalidPage
 from django.core.exceptions import ImproperlyConfigured
 from django.http import Http404
-from django.utils.encoding import smart_str
 from django.utils.translation import ugettext as _
 from django.views.generic.base import TemplateResponseMixin, ContextMixin, View
 
@@ -77,7 +76,7 @@ class MultipleObjectMixin(ContextMixin):
         if self.context_object_name:
             return self.context_object_name
         elif hasattr(object_list, 'model'):
-            return smart_str('%s_list' % object_list.model._meta.object_name.lower())
+            return '%s_list' % object_list.model._meta.object_name.lower()
         else:
             return None