High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Spanking literature refers to the genre of fiction, also known as flagellation, and a subset of sadomasochist literature. Spanking literature reached its "golden age" in the early 20th century in France and lasted nearly forty years. It began in the early 1900s, grew significantly in the 1920s, reached its peak in the 1930s and came to an end at the outbreak of World War II.