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Focalisation is a literary term used to describe the point of view from which a narrative is told. It refers to the "consciousness" or "mind" through which the reader experiences the story. This is distinct from the narrator's voice; the narrator might be external to the story, or even an omniscient being, but the focalisation dictates which character's perceptions, thoughts, and feelings are made available to the reader.

There are several types of focalisation. External focalisation occurs when the narrator describes events from a perspective outside any character, like an objective observer reporting what can be seen and heard without access to internal thoughts or feelings. Internal focalisation, on the other hand, is when the narrative is filtered through the consciousness of a specific character. This can be further divided into fixed internal focalisation, where the story is consistently focalised through one character, and variable internal focalisation, where the focalisation shifts between different characters throughout the narrative. In some cases, multiple focalisation can occur, where a single event is presented from the perspectives of several characters, offering a richer, more complex understanding. Understanding focalisation helps readers analyze how a story is constructed and how their own interpretation is shaped by the narrative perspective.