diff --git a/Lib/configparser.py b/Lib/configparser.py
index 924cc56..3b4cb5e 100644
--- a/Lib/configparser.py
+++ b/Lib/configparser.py
@@ -690,6 +690,7 @@ def read(self, filenames, encoding=None):
         """
         if isinstance(filenames, (str, bytes, os.PathLike)):
             filenames = [filenames]
+        encoding = io.text_encoding(encoding)
         read_ok = []
         for filename in filenames:
             try: