Is there a word or a phrase to describe an instance where meaning is ascribed to something where there is no such meaning or where the interpretation is particularly fanciful?
For example, when reading Shakespeare in English class or when viewing modern visual art in Art Appreciation class, someone mentions the 'phallic imagery or symbolism' of anything cylindrical in what is being read or viewed.
It's a phrase, not a word, but there's the expression reading too much into something, as in:
Matt, I think you're reading too much into it.
TFD lists read into as a phrasal verb, meaning:
to attach or attribute a new or different meaning to something; to presume inferences as one reads something.
That seems to be pretty close to what you're after.
Pareidoilia is seeing meaning in random stimulus, such as seeing faces or animals in cloud patterns.
The expression "Wishful thinking" comes to my mind. There's also a quirky word, "eisegesis" (the link is to the Wikipedia article on it, there's some useful related terms to be gleaned there, like "confirmation bias").
The word "exegesis", being a term with a long history, is also sometimes used to imply "wishful, crafty extrapolation", as in this beautiful poem by J.C.Ransom, Prometheus in Straits:
To the library then to view the masterpieces?
Not now, though I risk the damage of your inference,
For before their alterations respect ceases:
Their glowing centers you have laid over with absurd circumference,
Indeed you have undone them with exegesis,
And provoke me to a gesture not of deference.
There's also an idiom to read into.
pervert, v: 4. To interpret incorrectly; misconstrue or distort: an analysis that perverts the meaning of the poem.; 5. to misconstrue or misinterpret, esp. deliberately; distort.
slant, n: to have or be influenced by a subjective point of view, personal feeling or inclination, etc; bias.
bias, n, v: 1. mental tendency or inclination, esp an irrational preference or prejudice
stretch, n,v: 13. (tr) Informal to expand or elaborate (a story, etc.) beyond what is credible or acceptable that's stretching it a bit
warp n,v: 3. to pervert or be perverted
[src: TFD]
The technical term for this phenomenon is apophenia. Name for cognitive bias suggesting a person is special or important. Here's an article that explains the phenomenon: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Apophenia
Urban dictionary dictionary defines brain fact as follows:
A thought that you believe to be true. The "facts" are completely fabricated and are supported by zero empirical evidence whatsoever. The only qualifier is that you believe the fact to be true.
The word you are see king is: Eisegesis often confused with: Exegesis.
One word I can think of is
connotation
an idea or feeling which a word invokes for a person in addition to its literal or primary meaning.
This one's a little more folksy, but "painting a bullseye on a barn" refers to the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy, which
refers to the tendency in human cognition to interpret patterns where none actually exist. The name comes from a joke about a Texan who fires some shots at the side of a barn, then paints a target centered on the biggest cluster of hits and claims to be a sharpshooter.
See also: Clustering illusion
