Writing Nameless Characters

It was fairly standard practice in older literature, especially fairytales; referring to characters by their profession (eg., "the Baker") or their parentage (eg., "the Baker's daughter"). I wonder how it would seem in a 21-st century novel, though. I've read that it can be done, but it would take work because readers nowadays like projecting themselves onto characters, and that becomes hard to do when the characters are nameless. I'm putting this on here to get more perspective, because I have a WIP and am considering doing this. Would it read pretentious? Would it be too difficult to keep track of? That sort of thing.